Effectiveness and importance of powered tooth brushes in tooth movement

INTRODUCTION: Effectiveness of vibratory stimulus from a commonly available battery-powered tooth brush in accelerating orthodontic tooth movement was tested by a randomized controlled split-mouth study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Twenty-three subjects with bimaxillary protrusion, requiring extraction of all first premolars and requiring maximum anchorage, were chosen. After initial leveling and aligning, miniscrews were placed between the first molar and the second premolar in the maxillary right and left quadrants and loaded with 150-g nickel–titanium closed-coil springs for individual canine retraction. Additional 5 min of vibratory stimulus thrice daily was applied on the experimental side. The mean treatment duration was 3 months. RESULTS: There was no significant difference of means of the canine distal movement between the experimental and the control sides (P = 0.70). CONCLUSION: Application of vibratory stimulus with powered tooth brush during canine retraction was not seen to have an acceleratory effect on orthodontic tooth movement.