Corticotomy-facilitated orthodontics using piezosurgery versus rotary instruments: an experimental study

The aim of this study was to evaluate corticotomy-facilitated orthodontics (CFO) using piezosurgery versus conventional rotary instruments.

Ten healthy adult male mongrel dogs of comparable age with a complete set of permanent dentition with average weights between 13-17 kilograms were used. CFO using conventional rotary instruments versus piezosurgery was performed on each dog in a split mouth design. For every dog, mandibular 2nd premolar retraction on each side was attempted after extracting 3rd premolars followed by corticotomy-facilitated orthodontics using conventional rotary surgical burs on the left side and an ultrasonic piezosurgery system on the right side of the same animal. Intraoral measurements of the rate of tooth movement were taken with a sliding caliper. Measurements were performed by the same operator at the time of surgery (appliance delivery) and every month for six months. The dogs were sacrificed after six months from initiation of tooth movement to evaluate the amount of tooth movement for both conventional rotary and piezosurgery corticotomy techniques.

A statistically significantly higher mean amount of tooth movement for conventional rotary instrument versus the piezosurgery corticotomy technique was observed at all time intervals.

Tooth movement was 1.6 times faster when CFO was done using conventional rotary instruments as compared to a piezosurgery device.