Methods: Thirty patients (25 females, 5 males; mean age, 22.66 ± 3.27 years) who presented with moderate crowding of the upper labial segment and underwent extraction-based fixed appliance treatment were recruited. They were randomly allocated to receive adjunctive therapy with MOPs (n = 15) or treatment with fixed appliances only (control group; n = 15). EARR was measured from long-cone periapical radiographs taken at the start and the sixth month of treatment. A correction factor for the enlargement difference was used to calculate EARR. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and repeated-measures analysis of variance.

Results: The mean root lengths of 168 teeth were measured and showed no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05) after six months of fixed appliance treatment in the MOP (mean difference [MD] = 0.13 mm; 95% confidence interval [CI] = -0.10-0.35) and control group (MD = 0.14 mm; 95% CI = -0.10-0.37). Most of the roots in the MOP and control groups (42.86% and 52.38%, respectively) showed only mild resorption. Less than 8% of the roots in both groups (7.14% in the MOP group and 4.76% in the control group) showed moderate resorption.

DESIGN: Single-centre prospective two-arm parallel randomised controlled trial.

SETTING: Orthodontic Clinic, Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Selangor, Malaysia.

PARTICIPANTS: Adult orthodontic patients aged 18-35 years, indicated for DPT and LC, who were fit and healthy with a body mass index of 18.5-25.0, not contraindicated to radiographic examination, not pregnant, and did not have a history of facial or skeletal abnormalities or bone diseases were included.

METHODS: Thirty-eight adult orthodontic patients were randomised into control and intervention groups. DPT and LC radiographs in the control group were obtained using standard scanning parameters as prescribed by the manufacturer using Orthopantomograph® OP300 by Instrumentarium. Scanning parameters in the intervention group were reduced by 60% for DPT (60 kV, 3.2 mA) and 30% for LC (85 kV, 8 mA). A five-point rating scale was used for the assessment of image quality. Images were evaluated for diagnostic performance by detection of anatomical landmarks. Mann-Whitney test was performed to compare the quality and diagnostic performance of the images and the observer agreement was assessed using the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC).

RESULTS: For image quality, the control group produced slightly lower median scores (DPT 2.0, LC 2.0) compared to the intervention group (DPT 2.0, LC 3.0). For diagnostic performance, both groups showed similar median scores (DPT 21.0, LC 32.0). The differences between control and intervention groups for both modalities were not statistically significant. The average scores for intra-observer agreement were excellent (ICC 0.917) and inter-observer agreement was good (ICC 0.822).

METHODS: Thirty adult participants (25 females and 5 males; mean age, 22.66 ± 3.27 years) with moderate upper labial segment crowding were randomly assigned into intervention and control groups using block randomization. All participants had first premolar extractions, bonded conventional fixed appliances, and 0.014-in, followed by 0.018-in nickel-titanium archwire placement for initial alignment. The intervention group received a 3-mm deep MOPs procedure under local anesthesia using a Propel device (Propel Ortho Singapore, Pte, Ltd, Winstedt Rd, Singapore) on the labial attached gingivae of maxillary incisors at monthly visits until complete alignment. Little's irregularity index was used to assess the overall changes and measure the change of tooth alignment of the 6 maxillary anterior teeth. Assessor blinding was employed.

RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference in the median overall alignment duration between MOPs and control groups (139 days [95% confidence interval, 115.32-161.83] vs 143 days [95% confidence interval, 107.12-179.74]; hazard ratio, 0.829; P = 0.467). The MOPs procedure had no significant effect on the alignment duration (P = 0.657) and no overall significant difference in alignment improvement percentage among 2 groups on the basis of time (F = 2.53; P = 0.124). No harm was encountered.

CONCLUSIONS: The application of MOPs is no more effective in accelerating initial orthodontic alignment than conventional treatment.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: This trial was registered at the ISRCTN registry with the study ID ISRCTN15080404.

PROTOCOL: https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN15080404.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:  This is a retrospective study, where the sample comprised of 188 Malaysian Malay subjects aged between 18 and 40 years and with different sagittal skeletal patterns. Overall, 71 males and 117 females were gathered for all size and shape analyses. This study incorporated 11 soft-tissue landmarks, which underwent landmark application using tpsDig2 software version 2.31, while the shape analysis was done using MorphoJ software version 1.07a.

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS:  Statistical analyses were performed using IBM SPSS Statistics 26. The result of the analysis of variance (ANOVA) test showed significant differences in some of the parameters between the landmarks. Length D, Length E, Length F, Length H, and Length I showed significant differences (p  0.05).