Clinical research progress on corticotomy and modified techniques for accelerating orthodontic tooth movement

Adjunctive interventions for accelerating orthodontic tooth movement have been a hot topic of interest in orthodontics. Prolonged orthodontic treatment is often associated with multiple potential complications, such as decalcification, caries, root resorption, and gingival inflammation. Therefore, applying adjunctive interventions that accelerate orthodontic tooth movement and reduce the duration of orthodontic treatment can provide patients with numerous benefits that are of profound clinical significance. Currently, adjunctive interventions for accelerating orthodontic tooth movement can be divided into two main categories: surgical and nonsurgical. Surgical interventions, represented by corticotomy and modified corticotomy procedures, are the most common in clinical practice and can minimize the treatment duration, augment alveolar bone, and expand the range of orthodontic tooth movement. However, these procedures are inevitably traumatic and have many risks and limitations that prevent them from being widely used in clinical practice. In recent years, multiple modified corticotomy techniques, such as corticision, piezocision, micro-osteoperforation, and discision, have been proposed; these techniques can reduce soft and hard tissue damage and the incidence of postoperative complications and are relatively easy to perform in the clinic. Corticotomy and other improved surgical techniques can shorten the duration of orthodontic treatment to a certain extent and promote the recovery of periodontal health with no adverse effects on periodontal, dental, or pulp tissues. However, in clinical application, several potential side effects (such as periodontal tissue damage, root resorption, loss of pulp vitality, etc) and shortcomings need further research with long-term follow-up.