Description:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec><jats:title>Background</jats:title><jats:p>Passive mandibular advancement with functional appliances is commonly used to treat juvenile patients with mandibular retrognathism.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>The aim of this study was to investigate whether active repetitive training of the mandible into an anterior position would result in a shift of the habitual mandibular position (HMP).</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods</jats:title><jats:p>Twenty adult healthy subjects were randomly assigned to one of two groups: a training group receiving six supervised functional training sessions of 10 min each and a control group without training. Bonded lateral biteplates disengaged occlusion among both groups throughout the 15‐day experiment. Customised registration‐training appliances consisted of a maxillary component with an anterior plane and a mandibular component with an attached metal sphere. Training sessions consisted of repeated mouth‐opening/closing cycles (frequency: 30/min) to hit an anteriorly positioned hemispherical target notch with this metal sphere. The HMP was registered at defined times during the experiment.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The HMP in the training group showed a statistically significant anterior shift of 1.6 mm (interquartile range [IQR]: 1.2 mm), compared with a significant posterior shift of −0.8 mm (IQR: 2.8 mm) in the control group (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < .05). Although the anterior shift among the training group showed a partial relapse 4 days after the first training block, it then advanced slightly in the 4‐day interval after the second training block, which might indicate neuroplasticity of the masticatory motor system.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>Motor learning by repetitive training of the mandible into an anterior position might help to improve the results of functional appliance therapy among patients with mandibular retrognathism.</jats:p></jats:sec>