LAUSR

AIM To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of the eruption guidance appliances (EGAs) in treating malocclusion in early mixed dentition. DESIGN A comprehensive search was conducted in electronic databases for the eligibility literature of the EGA treatment for a period spanning from the earliest available date in each database up to July 2021. Randomized controlled trials, controlled clinical trials, and prospective and retrospective cohort studies were included in the present review. The quality of clinical trials was assessed according to the Cochrane Collaboration tools (RoB2.0 and ROBINS-I) while the cohort studies were based on the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS). The data were gathered and synthesized with Stata software (version 12). RESULTS The screen yielded 436 articles, of which 17 papers were potentially eligible, and 7 articles from 3 studies (1 RCT, 1 CCT and 1 PCS) were qualified for the final review and analysis. The meta-analysis showed both favorable dentoalveolar and skeletal changes in short term. Both overjet and overbite had a significant decrease after treatment (MD=-2.38mm, 95% CI: -2.82 to -1.94, P<0.001 and MD=-2.43mm, 95% CI: -3.52 to -1.35, P<0.001 respectively), and SNB increased significantly by 0.73 degrees (95% CI, 0.17 to 1.28, P=0.01). However, after the retention period, overbite had a significant increase of 0.88mm, which indicated a relapse occurs. (95% CI, 0.60 to 1.16, P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS According to existing evidence, the EGA treatment is effective in correction of overjet and overbite in the early mixed dentition in short term; further high quality and long term studies are warranted to determine the long term clinical effectiveness of EGA.