Correcting Class III Malocclusion

Before initiating treatment of a Class III patient, there are relevant facts which every practitioner should take into consideration.

Class III malocclusion is most often genetic. In fifty-seven years of practice I cannot remember ever having seen a Class III patient without finding some evidence of this malocclusion in other blood kin.

Class III patients do not all start out with this malocclusion and continue that growth pattern throughout development. Always look at blood relatives to aid in predicting how your patient may eventually develop. Do not be eager to treat a Class I malocclusion in a child when one, or both parents have a prominent chin— which denotes a Class III malocclusion.

Young men frequently have a latent growth spurt between 18 to 21 years of age. I have had cases successfully treated to a Class I at 14 to 16 years, yet grow out to an end-to-end (or worse!) relationship at 18 to 21 years of age. Always warn the patient, and parents, of the possibility of latent forward growth of the mandible in young men.