The treatment of ortho-perio patients is a challenge for the interdisciplinary team. Not only are adult patients with overt perio pathology involved, but any ortho patient, even young ones, can be a perio patient and vice versa. Diagnosis and risk assessment of every ortho-perio patient is essential to establish a correct treatment plan, schedule and prognosis. Orthodontics becomes a "Perio-Guided" Orthodontic Treatment and Periodontics a "Ortho-Guided Periodontal Treatment".

This case report presents a man with a very compromised dentition asking for a complete interdisciplinary rehabilitation treated with a combined ortho-perio treatment in lingual mechanics. The periodontal evaluation confirmed the possibility of performing orthodontic treatment after active periodontal treatment. Treatment objectives were the resolution of the crowding, the correction of the levels of the gingival margin, the bone levelling, the preparation for restorative spaces; the objectives of the latter prior to implant placement were: redistribution of space, optimization of the position of adjacent teeth and their parallelism, exploitation of edentulous sites to correct dental class II and placement of the least number of implants possible. After integrating the conventional perio risk assessment with a new Ortho-Perio Risk Assessment (OPRA), a lingual fixed appliance was applied with the help of miniscrews to correct class II division 2 by substituting the upper right first premolar into a canine and retracting the entire upper arch, while correcting the deep bite and optimising the occlusion.

At the end of the treatment, the patient had molar relationships of class II on the right and class I on the left with a class I canine and the 14 in the position of 13. Incisal relationships were corrected, the position of the incisors was optimized, the spaces in the upper arch were fully resolved by orthodontics. During the treatment, orthodontics corrected the uneven gingival margin of the anterior teeth and levelled the bone.

Correct ortho-perio risk assessment (OPRA) is necessary to plan the risk of expression of the periodontal phenotype in ortho-patient. OPRA and the lingual mechanics allowed an orthodontic resolution of the malocclusion and an enhancement of the perio-implant-restorative contributions. OPRA followed by periodontal therapy and lingual mechanics resolved the malocclusion by improving the restorative peri-implant conditions. Orthodontists and periodontists should be aware of the characteristics of the individual expression of the periodontal phenotype at the beginning of treatment and involve patients in the outcome, sequencing of combined treatments, ortho-perio retention and stability.