Effectiveness of Fully Customized Lingual Orthodontic Treatment: A Retrospective Pilot Study

Objective: To investigate the effectiveness of Suresmile® lingual therapy on torque, tip, and rotations measures through digital evaluation of planning and post-treatment digital models. Material and Methods: A sample of 12 Caucasian adult patients (4 men; mean age 30.6 years ± 3.9 and 8 women; mean age 31.4 years ± 4.5) treated with the Suresmile® lingual orthodontic technique was retrospectively selected, regardless of the type of malocclusion. Digital planning was performed with Suresmile® software, while lingual therapy was accomplished with interactive self-ligating lingual brackets and customized Suresmile® arches. First, digital models of planning and post-treatment digital models were compared using VAM software (and the discrepancies were analyzed through MANOVA and four multivariate. Then, Tukey and Bonferroni's post-hoc tests are performed. Results: The accuracy average values are 60.11 ± 27.67% for torque, 53.52 ± 27.37% for tip and 59.19 ± 26.42% for rotation, while for inaccuracy values are 2.72° ± 2.23° for torque, 2.98° ± 2.16° for tip and 3.58° ± 3.29° for rotation. No significant differences have been recorded evaluating different sectors of both arches. Conclusion: This retrospective preliminary study highlight how overcorrections, especially in the Suresmile lingual technique, should be performed during orthodontic planning. Moreover, the study gets bases for further, more structured future studies that should involve larger and more homogeneous samples.