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Research Project: Perceived Efficacy of Extrusion with Invisalign of Maxillary Lateral Incisors – Mason Bates, Second-year Resident, Virginia Commonwealth University
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My name is Mason Bates. The title of my research project is Perceived Efficacy of Extrusion with Invisalign of Maxillary Lateral Incisors
I am a second-year resident at Virginia Commonwealth University. Thank you so much to Drs. Stull, Sarver, Sema, and everyone else at the SAO who judged my research presentation worthy of an award. It was an honor to be able to contribute.
Even in my limited experience of using Invisalign to treat patients, I have on numerous occasions experienced tracking issues with maxillary lateral incisors (of normal size/shape) that I am attempting to extrude. This problem has been great for my learning, as I’ve been able to set up cases with different mechanics and/or attachments in an attempt to prevent tracking issues. I have also learned different ways to intervene when necessary. After a literature review, it became apparent to me that no real consensus existed as to when to consider a maxillary lateral not to be tracking, how to intervene, or how to best set up a case to avoid tracking issues. Though the answers to some of these questions may be somewhat case-dependent, I felt it worthwhile to survey the perceptions and experiences of other clinicians.
The purpose of my study was to assess the perceived efficacy of Invisalign to perform extrusive movements for maxillary lateral incisors and to determine a general threshold of when a maxillary lateral incisor is not extruding as predicted.
If intervention is required, the frequency and methods of mid-course intervention to achieve the predicted extrusion needed to be evaluated. Additionally, a goal was to evaluate any differences between orthodontists and general dentists as well as between clinicians who have treated differing numbers of Invisalign patients during the past 12 months.
An original 18-question survey was sent by mail to a randomized and geographically proportionate selection of orthodontic specialists (N = 400) and general dentists (N = 400) who are listed as Invisalign providers on the Invisalign website. • 126 providers responded to the survey (a 15.8% response rate)
• 36 general dentists (28.6%) and 90 orthodontists (71.4%) responded
• The average perceived efficacy of extrusion of maxillary lateral incisors with Invisalign was 4.71 out of 10
• Perceived efficacy was significantly associated with number of Invisalign patients treated in the past 12 months (p-value=0.0195) and the percentage of orthodontic patients treated with
Invisalign (p-value=0.0380), but not with provider type or number of years in practice.
