The Effect of Fixed Appliances and Clear Aligners Used in Orthodontic Treatment on Visual and Aesthetic Perception

Project no. 21851 · Status: Kapanmış (Yayın bekleniyor) · 2020

Summary

The basic principle of orthodontic tooth movement is to create an inflammatory response in the periodontal ligament by transmitting forces through the teeth. The force is transferred to the teeth with brackets, most commonly manufactured in metal and ceramic. Ceramic brackets aim to reduce the perception and recognition of the brackets by others during treatment and to preserve individual aesthetics. Another material that has been studied for the last 20 years for the same purpose is clear aligners. With the development of computer technologies and the combination of individualized composite attachments with aligners, the efficiency of this form of treatment has increased and it has become more frequently used. Clear aligners are claimed to be aesthetically superior to other methods. In this project, the visibility and aesthetic perception of clear aligners applied with metal brackets, ceramic brackets and different number of attachments will be compared. For this purpose, metal and ceramic brackets, clear aligners without attachments and clear aligners with different numbers of attachments will be temporarily fixed to a healthy volunteer so that photographs can be taken. Smile photographs will be taken from the volunteer. The photographs will be shown to dentists and lay people at the original distance, 50% zoomed out and 50% zoomed in and scored in terms of visibility and aesthetic perception. While there are findings in the literature regarding the perception of brackets, there are no findings evaluating the visibility and aesthetic perception of clear aligners considering attachments and comparing them with brackets. The unique value of this topic is to compare the aesthetic perception of clear aligners with conventional methods. The success and predictability of treatment with clear aligners is lower than with metal and ceramic brackets. However, the claim of aesthetics makes it possible to ignore this treatment deficiency. The results of this project will show whether the claimed superiority of clear aligners in terms of visibility and aesthetic perception exists.

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