Accelerating Orthodontic Treatment: A Continuous Challenge.
Every clinician will always aim for providing effective treatment,
this can be accomplished by delivering the planned treatment goals
over the shortest time possible, with minimal
biological side effects and high levels of patient satisfaction.
Unlike most of the dental specialities, orthodontic treatment tends to take
relatively longer duration; this can range from as short as a several
months to as long as several years.
This can be explained by the conservative nature of orthodontic treatment
that mainly depends on the dento-alveolar response to gentle orthodontic forces.
It is not surprising that patient satisfaction with fixed orthodontic treatment
outcome is generally high.
However, according to an interesting survey, the majority of orthodontic
patients expressed that their duration of treatment was considered too long and that they wish
if the duration of orthodontic treatment could be less than 12 months i.e. reduced to half.
Nowadays, there seem to be voices in the dental field claiming this is achievable.
One must be
wondering if this is true?
Let us first agree that this unresolved challenge is not new.
Since Edward Angle introduced the edgewise fixed orthodontic in the early 1900’s
and hundreds of studies were conducted to identify factors influencing
the duration of orthodontic treatment.
This included advanced technologies in the archwires, bracket design
and force application.
Non-surgical mechanical or physical stimulation of the dento-alveolar process has also been used in conjunction with
conventional braces to increase the speed of alveolar bone remodelling. These non-surgical adjunctive interventions include Photo biostimulation,
cyclic vibration and direct electric current.
The popularity of these interventions has grown in the
orthodontic field due to their non-invasive nature and the influence
from marketing companies. Interestingly, some of these companies promote
devices by claiming that they can reduce.
