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Updated: Apr 19, 2026
Author Spotlight: 3D Movement Assessment of Maxillary Posterior Teeth in Clear Aligner Treatment
Published on: February 23, 2024
Prediction of root and alveolar bone position during orthodontic therapy without additional radiation: A comparative
Zheqin Wang1, Yifan Jia1, Zhi Mao1
1Department of Orthodontics, School and Hospital of Stomatology, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
Background:
The objective of this study was to propose and validate a novel expected root and bone position (ERBP) model that simulates tooth root positions relative to alveolar bone during orthodontic treatment without additional radiographic exposure.
Methods:
This retrospective study included 28 patients undergoing clear aligner treatment. Intraoral scans and cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) were obtained at pretreatment and at the first midtreatment reset. The ERBP model was constructed by aligning the intraoral scans of crowns with CBCT-derived roots and alveolar bone using N-point alignment and the iterative closest point algorithm. Root mean square errors were used to evaluate superimposition accuracy for roots and jaws. Test-retest consistency, interexaminer consistency, and agreement between ERBP and CBCT were assessed via the Bland-Altman analysis and intraclass correlation coefficients. Statistical analysis was performed using the R software (version 4.1.1; R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria), with significance set at P <0.05.
Results:
All root mean square values were <1 mm. The Bland-Altman plots showed that most differences fell within ± 1.96 standard deviations. Intraclass correlation coefficients indicated high reliability: 0.984-0.995 (test-retest), 0.939-0.988 (interexaminer), and 0.814-0.986 (ERBP vs CBCT).
Conclusions:
The ERBP model accurately reproduces midtreatment root positions, with results comparable with those of CBCT. It offers a reliable, radiation-sparing method for monitoring root-bone relationships.
