Guiding Occlusal Delvelopment wih Functional Appliances

Orthodontic treatment with functional appliances has been available since the beginning of this century. One of the first known functional appliances, ‘the Monobloc’, was introduced at a conference in Paris in 1926 by Pierre Robin.¹ This appliance had been developed at the beginning of the century for the treatment of patients with Pierre Robin syndrome. Patients with this syndrome have extreme retrognathia of the mandible at birth and, as a result, the tongue is so far back in the pharynx that there is a risk of snffocation. Several years later, the same appliance was modified by Pierre Robin himself for the treatment of patients with Class II malocclusions which are in combination with extreme overjet.