Scientists at USC’s School of Dentistry have refined an orthodontic technique that facilitates the straightening of teeth within months instead of years. Their secret? Your bones!
A case study in the Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry describes the technique. First score marks are made around the roots of the upper and lower teeth. Then a particulate bone graft is harvested and applied to the scored area. The healing process that then takes place softens the bones around the roots of the teeth, giving them much more mobility allowing treatment to take place more rapidly and with less side effects.
While this technique has been around for a while, the bone graft used was typically not from the patient itself.
Press release: USC School of Dentistry researchers publish the first case study of an accelerated procedure involving the grafting of a patient’s own bone material. …
Read the abstract for the case study here…
Image by mygothlaundry.