Purpose: Malposition of dental elements can be easily corrected when the patient is young; however, the opposite is true for adults. Middle-age patients normally request a rapid solution, but they usually also have associated pathologic features, such as advanced periodontal disease, dental migration, and ankylosis. Shortening the orthodontic treatment time is possible but not easy to achieve. We applied piezosurgical bone cuts to 10 patients affected by different dental malformations to determine the effects of a shorter treatment time.
Materials and methods: A total of 10 patients (8 women and 2 men) were treated using the monocortical tooth dislocation and ligament distraction technique. We included 5 patients with dental ankylosis (group A, with a range of 4 to 5 mm of dental intrusion into the bone), who presented with at least 4 elements included in the mandible, and 5 preoperative patients affected by maxillary hypoplasia and transverse maxillary diameter reduction (group B, with a range of 6 to 8 mm measured at the first molar palatal cusp).
Results: Dental repositioning was achieved within 18 to 25 days for the dental intrusion group (group A) and within 68 to 150 days for the preoperative group (group B). The average period was 20 days for group A and 100 days for both dental arches in group B. The decrease in orthodontic treatment time was 70% for the ankylotic teeth and 65% for the preoperative group. We observed no periodontal or gingival damage, although all 10 patients experienced moderate edema and pain.
Conclusions: This method of shortening the orthodontic treatment time is simple, and performing osteotomic lines laterally and apically to the tooth radix on the bone has proved useful in reducing the treatment time. In addition, the technique is very easy to use and has a low incidence of side effects.
Copyright © 2011 American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.