Comparison of movement rate with different initial moment-to-force ratios.

Introduction: The objective of this clinical prospective study was to evaluate the effect of the 2 treatment strategies, translation or controlled tipping, followed by root correction on canine retraction efficiency, specifically canine movement rate.

Methods: Twenty-one patients who needed bilateral maxillary canine retraction to close extraction space as part of their treatment plan were selected for this study. Segmental T-loops designed for controlled tipping or for translation were applied randomly to each side. Two digital maxillary dental casts (taken before and after treatment) were used to measure the tooth displacements of each patient. The coordinate system located at the center of canine crown on the pretreatment model with the 3 axes defined in the mesial-distal (M-D), buccal-lingual, and occlusal-gingival directions was used to express the 6 tooth displacement components. The movement rates on the occlusal plane and in the M-D direction were computed. Movement rates were calculated by dividing the M-D displacements or the resultant displacement on the occlusal plane with the corresponding treatment time.

Results: T-Loops for controlled tipping moved canines faster (33.3% on occlusal plane and 38.5% in the M-D direction) than T-loops for translation. The differences were statistically significant (P = 0.041 on the occlusal plane and 0.020 in the M-D direction).

Conclusions: Moment-to-force ratio (M/F) affects the canine movement rate in a maxillary canine retraction treatment with the use of a segmented T-loop mechanism. Within the neighborhood of the ratio for translation, lower M/F moves the canine faster than higher M/F both on the occlusal plane and in the M-D direction.