Impact of photobiomodulation and low-intensity pulsed ultrasound adjunctive interventions on orthodontic treatment duration during clear aligner therapy:
Ra’ed Al‐Dboush, Anahita Naseri Esfahani, Tarek El‐Bialy
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficiency of low-intensity pulsed ultrasound (LIPUS) and photobiomodulation (PBM) interventions in accelerating orthodontic tooth movement during clear aligner therapy (CAT). MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective study was carried out on the records of 84 subjects who were treated using CAT. Twenty-eight patients were treated using CAT with a daily use of LIPUS for 20 minutes, 28 patients were treated using CAT with a daily use of PBM for 10 minutes, and 28 patients were treated using CAT alone. The total duration of treatment was recorded for all patients. One-way analysis of variance and post hoc Tukey test were used to assess whether there was any significant difference in total treatment duration among the three groups (P < .05). RESULTS: The mean treatment durations in days were 719 ± 220, 533 ± 242, and 528 ± 323 for the control, LIPUS, and PBM groups, respectively. The LIPUS group showed a 26% reduction, on average, in treatment duration when compared with the control group, whereas the PBM group showed an average 26.6% reduction in the treatment duration when compared with the control group. The results showed that there were statistically significant differences among the groups (P = .011). Treatment durations were significantly reduced in the LIPUS and PBM groups as compared with the control (P = .027 and P = .023, respectively), with no statistically significant differences between the LIPUS and PBM groups (P = .998). CONCLUSIONS: Daily use of LIPUS or PBM as adjunctive interventions during CAT could reduce the duration of orthodontic treatment.