• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.38 no.4
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• pp.427-434
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• 2011

A scissors bite in the posterior teeth occurs when the upper teeth are positioned totally buccal to the lower teeth in centric occlusion, either unilaterally or bilaterally. This malocclusion can result from either excessive width of the maxilla or deficient width of the mandible, or sometimes combination of the both. Scissors bite, when left untreated without a proper dental intervention, interferes with the normal mandibular growth leading to a state where consequent disharmony in dental arch width evokes occlusal disturbances. Therefore, early preventive orthodontic treatment is necessary in patients with scissors bite. Scissors bite rarely involves anterior and posterior sites concuttently across the dental arch but usually affect single tooth. Even in the single tooth scissors bite cases, more likely to be met in the clinical fields, immediate dental intervention is indicated because continuous occlusal forces that exacerbate the already adverse axis of the posterior teeth. In this case study, patients with single tooth scissors bite, each 7, 14, 12, and 16 years old, were each treated with criss-cross elastic, fixed appliance, removable appliance, and miniscrews. With the proper selection of appliances appropriate to each specific cases, good treatment outcome can be achieved without resulting any side effects.