Effect of vibration on orthodontic tooth movement in a double blind prospective randomized controlled trial

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of vibration on orthodontic tooth movement and safety assessment based on our previous basic research in animal experiments. A double-blind prospective randomized controlled trial using split-mouth design was conducted in patients with malocclusion. The left and right sides of maxillary arch were randomly assigned to vibration (TM + V) and non-vibration (TM) groups. After leveling, vibrations (5.2 ± 0.5 g-forces (gf), 102.2 ± 2.6 Hertz (Hz)) were supplementary applied to the canine retracted with 100 gf in TM + V group for 3 min at the monthly visit under double-blind fashion, and the canine on the other side without vibration was used as TM group. The amount of tooth movement was measured blindly using a constructed three-dimensional dentition model. The amount of canine movement per visit was 0.89 ± 0.55 mm in TM group (n = 23) and 1.21 ± 0.60 mm in TM + V group (n = 23), respectively. There was no significant difference of pain and discomfort, and root resorption between the two groups. This study indicates that static orthodontic force with supplementary vibration significantly accelerated tooth movement in canine retraction and reduced the number of visits without causing side effects.