Remote Corticotomy Accelerates Orthodontic Tooth Movement in a Rat Model

With an increasing demand for orthodontic treatment for adult patients, orthodontic professionals are constantly seeking novel strategies and technologies that can accelerate tooth movement in order to shorten the treatment period. For instance, in recent years, the influences of different surgical techniques on orthodontic tooth movement in the ipsilateral side of surgery were intensively investigated. Here, we attempt to examine if corticotomy could also affect the rate of tooth movement in the contralateral side of the surgery by using a rodent model.

72 eight-week-old Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly divided into three groups as follows: the Control group (orthodontic treatment devices delivered only, no tooth movement), the orthodontic tooth movement (OTM) group (orthodontic treatment devices delivered and orthodontic treatment performed), and the Corticotomy + OTM group (remote corticotomy performed, orthodontic treatment devices delivered, followed by orthodontic treatment). The surgical procedure was conducted on the right side of the maxilla at the time of appliance placement and a force of 60 g was applied between the maxillary left first molar and maxillary incisors using nickel-titanium springs to stimulate OTM. The OTM distance and speed were tracked at 3, 7, 14, and 28 days post-surgery, followed by histological and immunohistochemical assessments.

In comparison with orthodontic treatment only, the contralateral corticotomy significantly accelerated OTM. Furthermore, animals undergoing corticotomy + OTM presented with a greater number of osteoclasts on the compression side, stronger staining of the osteogenic marker on the tension side, and higher expression of an inflammatory marker than the OTM group animals.

Our current study demonstrates that remote corticotomy effectively accelerates alveolar bone remodeling and OTM. The study enriches our understanding of the regional acceleratory phenomenon (RAP) and offers an alternative strategy for accelerating OTM to shorten the orthodontic treatment period.