Use of an onplant as orthodontic anchorage

Considerable limitations in the clinical application of orthodontic treatment can result from the lack of teeth suitable for anchorage. If prosthetic rehabilitation is necessary, endosseous implants can be first used as orthodontic anchorage and then loaded by a prosthetic superstructure. However, in a plan of exclusive orthodontic treatment, alveolar bone is not always available, and an orthodontic osseointegrated anchorage system might be necessary. We report the use of an onplant for palatal anchorage to extrude the unerupted horizontal maxillary first molars in a 12-year-old white girl with tooth aplasia and secondary cleft palate. After a healing period of 5 months, the onplant remained stable under indirect elastic tension of approximately 160 g applied for 17 weeks, and the maxillary first molars were successfully extruded.