Objective: The objective of this study was to compare mechanical and manual techniques to remove orthodontic mini-implants. We also investigated whether the treated patients preferred local anesthetics. The study's focus is on the patients' perceptions and the resulting preferences.
Patients and methods: A total of 25 patients were randomly assigned to Group A or Group B. In Group A, the mini-implants were removed with a handpiece, while the Group-B patients' mini-implants were removed completely by hand. In addition, all patients received an injection of local anesthetic into one half of the jaw. No anesthetic was used on the other half of the jaw. The patients were asked about their pain perception before treatment, immediately after treatment and one day after treatment.
Results: We observed no significant differences between the two groups with respect to the intensity of their symptoms. However, the noise associated with the handpiece was found to be unpleasant and tended to lead to more symptoms than when no handpiece was used. Pain perceived during mini-implant removal was relatively slight and not much affected by the use of local anesthetics. The most severe symptoms were associated with the injection itself. The non-injected side experienced significantly less discomfort and was thus the preferred side in both groups.
Conclusion: The patients tolerated the two removal procedures equally well. As the noise associated with the handpiece increased discomfort, manual removal of the mini-implants is preferable. As regards the injection technique, our results show that local anesthesia during removal does not provide a benefit. The most pain was caused by the injection, not by removal of the mini-implants.