Esthetic Orthodontic Treatment Using the Invisalign Appliance for Moderate to Complex Malocclusions

• Published in: Journal of dental education Vol. 72; no. 8; pp. 948 - 967
• Main Author: Boyd, Robert L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Dental Education Association 01.08.2008
• Subjects: Adolescent; Aged; aligners; Bicuspid - pathology; clear appliances; Dental Arch - pathology; Dentistry; esthetic orthodontic treatment; Esthetics, Dental; Female; Follow-Up Studies; Humans; Invisalign; malocclusion; Malocclusion - therapy; Malocclusion, Angle Class I - therapy; Malocclusion, Angle Class II - therapy; Orthodontic Appliance Design; Orthodontic Appliances; Rotation; Time Factors; Tooth Movement Techniques - instrumentation; Tooth Movement Techniques - methods; Torque; Treatment Outcome
• ISSN: 0022-0337; 1930-7837
• DOI: 10.1002/j.0022-0337.2008.72.8.tb04570.x

In this report, three patients were treated with a new treatment protocol for Invisalign to demonstrate that a variety of complex malocclusions can be successfully treated using this protocol, including correction of moderate crowding, correction of moderate Class II division 1, and deep overbite. Previous studies of Invisalign showed significant limitations for more complex orthodontic treatment, although a few recent case reports have shown successfully completed moderate to difficult orthodontic malocclusions. One reason for the discrepancy is that the earlier studies were done during the first four years of the appliance development (now ten years of clinical use), when significant problems existed with accomplishing bodily movement, torquing of roots, extrusions, and rotations of premolars and canines. The new protocol included new methods for anterior/posterior corrections, showing on the computer the effect of elastics for Class II treatment simulated as a one‐stage anterior/posterior movement at the end of treatment. Staging for interproximal reduction (IPR) is now automatically staged when there is better access to interproximal contacts to avoid IPR where significant overlap between teeth is present to avoid performing IPR on surfaces that may be damaged by instruments such as burs, strips, and disks when cut on a sharp angle. Staging for tooth movements is now also done to enable combination movements to occur simultaneously for each tooth with the tooth that needs to move the most (the lead tooth) determining the minimum number of stages required. All other teeth move at a slower rate than the lead tooth throughout the duration of treatment. Attachments are now placed in the middle of the crown automatically for rotation and automatically sized in proportion to the clinical crown. Use of 1 mm thick (buccal‐lingual dimension) horizontal beveled rectangular attachments is standard on premolars for retention of aligners during intrusive movements, such as leveling the lower curve of Spee in deep overbite for extrusions and for control of the tooth long axis during torquing movements. Staging of tooth movements now track linear and rotational velocities of teeth separately with the number of treatment stages determined by the lead tooth based on its rotational or linear maximum velocities at no more than two degrees of rotation per stage. Simultaneous movements are done for all teeth providing visible space (approximately 0.05 mm) between teeth during movements past other teeth using expansion instead of IPR as a primary way to increase space available for correction of crowding.