In a study published in the January 2016 issue of the Journal of Prosthetics and Orthotics, a team of researchers compared the age of helmet treatment in infants who had cranial asymmetry to determine the most effective age to start treatment. The results show that when the treatment is initiated before the patient is six months old, the best results were obtained within a shorter time when compared with a later intervention, according to the authors.
Infants treated with orthotic therapy were divided into two groups (up to six months and older than six months). The researchers compared variables obtained by 3D laser scanning and parents’ subjective impressions. Results of the Mann-Whitney U test demonstrated that the group of three-to-six-month olds had a mean duration of treatment of 3.45 months, whereas the group that was older than six months of age had a mean duration of treatment of 4.18 months. The cranial vault asymmetry index and diagonal difference resulted in a significant decrease after treatment, but the reduction for the infants under six months old was significantly higher. Unlike the posterior symmetry ratio, the cephalic index improved in both groups, but with no difference regarding the time of intervention, according to the study.
