AcceleDent Aura does not influence Treatment duration or number of visits

Pandis, Nikolaos; Miles, Peter (2020). AcceleDent Aura does not influence Treatment duration or number of visits. Australasian Orthodontic Journal, 36(1) Australian Society of Orthodontists

Text Miles_Pandis.pdf - Published Version Restricted to registered users only Available under License Publisher holds Copyright. Download (244kB)

There are many appliances and techniques available claiming to accelerate the rate of orthodontic tooth movement and thereby reduce treatment time.
However, it has been pointed out that claims of shorter treatment times could open up the possibility of liability for breach of contract.1 Perhaps more
concerning is the propensity for some orthodontists to repeat the claims of accelerated treatment made by companies in their own webpages and marketing. This has led to the observation that, “I have seen a decline
in ethics.... It has become slightly and progressively worse over time. There are many ethical conundrums and issues facing practitioners today; one of which is
how we market our services.”1
A technique that has been claimed to decrease the amount of time in fixed appliances by up to 50% is micro-vibration applied by the AcceleDent Aura
appliance (OrthoAccel Technologies, TX, USA). Early animal research has suggested that tooth movement could be increased by up to 1.3 to 1.4 times faster.2-4 In a trial evaluating the AcceleDent appliance during
maxillary canine retraction, an accelerated rate of canine retraction was reported in the appliance group.5 However, there were concerns with the methodology used, as the rate of movement was measured directly
in the mouth from a miniscrew/TAD. A miniscrew is a potentially unstable landmark and measuring diagonally from the miniscrew across the extraction
site is not a true indicator of space closure as any movement would be exaggerated.
More recently a randomised clinical trial has reported no difference in the time for initial alignment,6 in extraction space closure and overall treatment
time.7 Similarly, another prospective RCT found no difference in initial alignment,8 time taken to reach the working wire,9 or in extraction space closure.10 It has been suggested that the use of microvibration may help
clear aligners seat better and track more favourably. However, a clinical trial investigating weekly aligner changes reported that there was no evidence in adults that use of the AcceleDent Aura device affected aligner
completion or the final alignment achieved.11
While many studies have investigated the use of adjunctive appliances, the assumption has been made that the appliance was used as directed and therefore had an influence on the outcome. In most cases compliance was not assessed. One of the original clinical publications evaluating an early model of the AcceleDent appliance did monitor compliance in using the appliance.12 In the study, 17 participants were recruited but three subjects declined to continue, and of the remaining 14, the participants self-reported using the device 80% of the time. However, the device’s recorder indicated only 67% compliance. Ideally any analysis would also include subjects who later declined to continue using the appliance, which would lower the compliance to anywhere between 67% and 55%. The time-frame was also unclear and any change in compliance over time was not demonstrated.
The present paper was an ongoing trial of the AcceleDent Aura appliance and reports Overall treatment duration, number of visits and number of bond failures. In addition, compliance with the
AcceleDent Aura appliance over the first 12.5 months of treatment was recorded.8,10

Interest & Impact

Downloads

2 since deposited on 15 Jun 2020
0 in the past 12 months

Citations

5 Citations in Web of Science ®
6 Citations in Scopus

Search

in Google Scholar™

Services

Actions (login required)

Edit item

Actions (login required)

Edit item