MAXILLARY INCISORS CHANGES DURING SPACE CLOSURE WITH CONVENTIONAL AND SKELETAL ANCHORAGE METHODS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Purpose: The objective of this systematic review was to compare theantero-posterior, vertical and angular changes of maxillary incisorswith conventional anchorage control techniques and mini-implantbased space closure methods.Materials and Methods: The electronic databases Pubmed, Scopus,ISI Web of knowledge, Cochrane Library and Open Grey weresearched for potentially eligible studies using a set of predeterminedkeywords. Full texts meeting the inclusion criteria as well as theirreferences were manually searched. The primary outcome data(linear, angular, and vertical maxillary incisor changes) andsecondary outcome data (overbite changes, soft tissue changes,biomechanical factors, root resorption and treatment duration) wereextracted from the selected articles and entered into spreadsheetsbased on the type of anchorage used. The methodological qualityof each study was assessed.Results: Six studies met the inclusion criteria. The amount ofincisor retraction was greater with buccally placed mini-implantsthan conventional anchorage techniques. The incisor retractionwith indirect anchorage from palatal mini-implants was less whencompared with buccally placed mini-implants. Incisor intrusionoccurred with buccal mini-implants, whereas extrusion was seenwith conventional anchorage. Limited data on the biomechanicalvariables or adverse effects such as root resorption were reportedin these studies.Conclusion: More RCT’s that take in to account relevantbiomechanical variables and employ three-dimensionalquantification of tooth movements are required to provideinformation on incisor changes during space closure.