Background: Prolonged treatment time can cause potentially harmful side-effects to the patient. It is also not beneficial to the health care system in terms of cost efficiency. This leads to motivate the Orthodontists to indulge more research in the field of accelerated orthodontics.
Aim: To evaluate the effect of low-energy laser irradiation on rate of lower molar protraction using fixed orthodontic appliances by friction mechanics using mini-implants as a direct source of anchorage.
Materials and Methods: Ten orthodontic patients in whom alignment and levelling were completed and treatment protocol warrants lower second premolars extraction were selected. A split mouth design was used with the right side as the laser group and the left side being non-laser group. A Diode laser of 810nm, in contact mode, with an output of 200mW was exposed for 10 seconds on 0, 3rd, 7th, and 15th day of the first month and the 15th day of the second and third month. Impressions were taken before and after three months of laser application and dental models were poured. The rate of orthodontic tooth movement on both sides was calculated as the amount of tooth movement divided by the time period. For the overall comparison of the laser and non-laser groups Unpaired t test was used. While within the laser and non-laser groups comparison was done using Paired t-test.
Results: Diode laser group showed an overall mean amount of Mandibular Molar mesialization i.e. 2.75+/-0.83 mm with a statistically significant difference (p<0>
Conclusion: Diode laser showed increased efficiency i.e. 29% compared to the Non-Laser group in protracting the mandibular molars.
Keywords: Diode-laser, Friction mechanics, Mini-implants
