Comparative assessment of the rate of orthodontic tooth movement in adolescent patients undergoing treatment by first bicuspid extraction and en mass retraction, associated with low-frequency mechanical vibrations in passive self-ligating and conventional brackets: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Low-frequency vibrations are one of the many non-surgical modalities aimed at increasing the rate of orthodontic tooth movement. OBJECTIVE: The present trial was conducted to assess the efficacy of low-frequency vibrations in increasing the rate of orthodontic tooth movement in adolescent patients undergoing fixed mechanotherapy with passive self-ligating brackets and conventional brackets. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Setting and sample population: department of orthodontics and dentofacial orthopaedics in a nationally accredited dental college. Participants, study design and methods: 65 patients were randomly allocated to three groups. Two experimental groups consisted of passive self-ligating and conventionally ligated appliances received low-frequency vibrations. The control group did not receive any vibrations. Allocation ratio was 1:1:1.32. Eligibility criteria: adolescent patients with sound and healthy dentition, incisor irregularity<5mm. PRIMARY OUTCOME: rate of orthodontic tooth movement in mm/month. Randomization and blinding: computer-generated random allocation sequencing was done and data assessor was blinded. STATISTICS: the Q-Q plot and Shapiro-Wilks test judged the normality of the data. The parametric test included ANCOVA and post-hoc analysis. RESULTS: No statistically significant enhancement of tooth movement was seen in the experimental groups, when comparison was done with the control group P>0.05. Comparison between the two experimental groups did not reveal any significant difference either. CONCLUSION: No statistically significant increase of orthodontic tooth movement was seen with low-frequency vibrations and the mode of ligation did not have any effect in increasing the rate of tooth movement either.