The effect of micro‑osteoperforation on root resorption, pulp vitality, and biological changes of teeth subjected to orthodontic tooth movement: A systematic review study

These days minimally invasive micro‑osteoperforation (MOPs) has accelerated orthodontic tooth movement (OTM). However, there are some conflicting reports about their various impacts; hence, the present systematic review study aimed to evaluate the effect of MOP on root resorption, pulp vitality, and the biological changes of teeth subjected to OTM.

Search in electronic databases of English literature including PubMed, Scopus, Web of sciences, Cochrane, and Google scholar as well as a manual search was performed from 2013 to 2022. Most of the studies included in this article were randomized controlled trials.

From the total number of 321 found articles, 31 duplicated and 268 irrelevant articles were excluded regarding the defined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Consequently, 22 articles were subjected to the quality assessment process, and finally, 18 articles were selected for the review phase. Root resorption during tooth movement using the MOP approach was reported only in one study. Besides, except for two animal studies, all of the relevant included articles showed that MOPs significantly increased the expression of some inflammatory biomarkers known to recruit osteoclast precursors and increase the number of osteoclast cells. On the other hand, two animal studies showed no differences in osteoclast counts by using MOPs in comparison to their control groups, which was consequently the result of biologic variability between animal and human and also probably the small sample sizes of these two studies.

In this systematic review, according to the adverse effects of MOP on root resorption, one study showed higher levels of root resorption among patients undergoing MOP. However, this outcome was due to the different methods used to evaluate the effect of MOPs on root resorption. Moreover, a high certainty of evidence supports that MOP causes biological changes and an elevation in cytokines, chemokines, and other biomarkers that stimulates osteoclasts differentiation which in turn accelerate OTM. There was no change in pulp vitality status based on available evidence.