Piezocision-assisted orthodontic treatment in adult patient: A case report

The duration of orthodontic treatments in adult patient remains a barrier for some patients. The recent scientific reports describing piezocision technique involving minimally invasive corticotomies, seem to be of interest for these particular cases. The present communication describes the clinical case of a 20-year-old patient presenting a class I bilateral, an overcrowding of front areas with the superior canine in mesio-infraclusion and a deviated lower median line.
An excellent multidisciplinary approach is mandatory for the planification of such cases.
Under local anesthesia, the surgical technique involves vertical minimal incision around the teeth that need to be moved. Trough the minimal incisions, 5mm vertical alveolar osteotomies are performed using ultrasonic surgical device. No suture is necessary. The orthodontic activation is applied 1 week before the surgical procedure and the patient is recalled every 15 days to activate the orthodontic appliance. In this case self-ligating brackets were used to reduce the friction.
Post-operative outcomes were painless for the patient and the complete orthodontic procedure took 7 months. The overall treatment appeared to be faster than a conventional orthodontic treatment. However, even if animal studies seem to confirm the clinical feeling described in this case report, further clinical studies including randomized controlled trials are needed to validate this treatment approach.