[Bone formation and corticotomy-induced accelerated bone remodeling: can alveolar corticotomy induce bone formation?]

Current orthodontic treatments must answer an increasing demand for faster yet as efficient treatments, especially in adult patients. These past years, the amelioration of orthodontic, anesthetic and orthognathic surgery techniques have allowed considerable improvement of orthodontico-surgical treatments and of adult orthodontic treatments. Alveolar corticotomy (an example of such techniques) accelerates orthodontic tooth movements by local modifications of bone metabolism, inducing a transient osteopenia. This osteopenia allows greater tooth movements than conventional techniques. Whereas there is a growing understanding of the underlying biological mechanisms of alveolar corticotomies, there is little data regarding the osteogenic potential of such technique. In the present article, we review the literature pertaining to alveolar corticotomies and their underlying biological mechanisms and present a clinical case underlining the osteogenic potential of the technique.