Clinical Assessment of Frenum Morphology and Attachment in Malaysian Children

Abstract

To determine the prevalence of various types and attachment level of maxillary frenum in Malaysian children. Material and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a total of 200 children of age ranging from 2 to 15 years. Photographs of maxillary frenum were taken and their types and level of attachment were recorded by using Placek's classification and modified Sewerin typology. Children were divided into 3 groups based on age: between 2-5, 6-11 and 12-15 years. Descriptive analysis was carried out to determine the frequency of frenum types and level of attachment. The relationship of frenal attachment with gender, and age were studied. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviation). Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: The most common type was mucosal type of attachment (75%) and the least common was papillary penetrating (4.5%) based on Placek's classification whereas for modified Sewerin's typology, simple frenum (73%) was the most prevalent, followed by simple with nodule frenum (11.5%). There was no significant difference in the frenum attachment between the two genders. Mucosal and gingival attachment was significantly higher in older age group whereas papillary and papillary penetrating was higher in younger age group. Conclusion: This study showed that attachment of frenum in children changes according to age and whereas gender plays no role in portraying the difference. Hence, clinicians must be able to identify the different types of MMLF during dental examination to avoid any unnecessary surgical interventions particularly during the period of development.

Variations in Maxillary Frenal Morphology in a Sample of Newari Children of Bhaktapur

“…Many studies have reported the simple frenum to be the most common type with differences in other types based on Sewerin's classification. 5,14,18,21,27 In line with our results, Rathod et al reported simple frenum as most common type followed by frenum with nodule and frenum with appendix. 15 However study done by Nagavent et al 27 and Birader et al 28 the persistent tectolabial frenum was the common type after simple frenum.…”

“…These studies have related their findings based on age, gender, race, and ethnicity. 10,14,15,[18][19][20] Inconsistent to our study, mucosal frenal attachment was to be prevalent in studies done by Kotian et al, 18 Pandian et al 21 We also observed similar findings based on Mirko's classification of maxillary labial frenum according to location.…”

Prevalence of Maxillary Labial Frenal Attachments Types and Midline Diastema in Egyptian Children with Fully Erupted Maxillary Permanent Canines: A Cross Sectional Study

“…The distribution of frenal attachment types according to age showed that mucosal and gingival frenal types were noticed in patients aged between 13-15 y, while 12 years old children had a higher distribution of papillary frenal types. These results conformed with Divater et al, 2019;Zakirulla et al, 2021 and can be related to the tendency of the labial frenum to migrate more apically with aging (Pandiyan and Hedge, 2018).…”

Evaluation of Median Maxillary Labial Frenum Type and Morphology in Different Age Groups

“…Bifid type frenum prevalence was seen as 8.8% in all of the age groups and when compared to the other groups the highest prevalence was seen in the GI group (18.3 %). A decrease in There are studies indicating that the MMLF gingival type is seen at a high rate (30.0-61.0 %) (2)(3)(4)8,15,18), as well as studies indicating that the mucosal type is detected (6,10,14,17,19). We attribute the reason for this difference to the age range of the selected population and the limited sample size.…”