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Many patients ask aboutthis on a daily basis, so we thought we could devote this blog post to the popular topic of accelerated orthodontic treatment. There is no doubt that every orthodontist would like to speed up orthodontic treatment, as shorter treatment times would clearly benefit our patients.

Over the past several years various methods to speed up treatment have been developed. These methods generally attempt to modify the biological factors that control tooth movement. The two most popular commercially available approaches are listed below:

• AcceleDent® is an intraoral device that applies vibration for 20 minutes a day to the teeth of patients who are having orthodontic treatment.  The aim is to increase the speed of orthodontic treatment and reduce discomfort.
• Propel® Orthodontics includes a series of devices that are capable of producing micro-osteoperforations (in other words, drilling small holes in the alveolar bone through the gum tissue) during orthodontic treatment with braces or aligners, with the objective of accelerating tooth movement and reducing the duration of orthodontic treatment.

We have been closely following the scientific literature on the topic as it becomes available. There is currently no real evidence to support the use of vibratory force or manual perforations of the alveolar bone with the aim of increasing the speed of tooth movement.  Unfortunately, these techniques are being widely promoted in the absence of good evidence. Practitioners that want to use these techniques need to inform their patients that the evidence at the present time is weak or lacking.

Consequently, we will wait until current trials are published, before we can recommend this treatment to our patients here at Beach Braces.

-Your Beach Braces Team