Durga Dental Care & Research Centre

The most common requirement for orthodontics intervention, after the malocclusion are space regaining and space closing.

Space regaining: To regain space that had been lost to mesial drifting or inclination of posterior teeth. As permanent molars drift or incline in to the space after early extraction of milk tooth. This blocks the proper eruption of premolar.

Methods for space regaining:

• Removable appliance with spring or expansion screw to move the drifted tooth distally.
• Fixed: braces on the lower arch and with the use of open springs moving the drifted tooth back to it’s original position.

Benefits of space regaining:

• Normal eruption of impacted tooth.
• Establishing and maintaining a perfect occlusion for optimum chewing efficency.
• Perfect arch is esthetically looks better.
• Space lost in cases of missing permanent tooth especially lateral incisors and premolars, helps to give the best replacement for missing tooth, both in shape and function.
• Saves the patient from cavities and associated pain and infection in area of missing or impacted teeth due to increased food impaction.

When should one seek the treatment?

Space maintenance is the part of preventive dentistry. In cases of early extraction of deciduous/ milk teeth, we recommend using a space maintainer. If due to some reason, one did not used any space maintainer device and the malocclusion develops, space regaining should be done on the priority basis as it can saves you from number of dental problems.

Space closing: There may be small spaces present between the teeth which need to closed orthodontically. Most common is the space inbetween two front teeth. Closing this space orthodontically saves the tooth from any cutting for laminates, preserves the golden ratio of teeth and most economical than other options.