The effectiveness of orthodontic treatment with different thickness CLEAR aligners

It was aimed to compare the effectiveness, satisfaction and pain levels of clear aligner treatment with different thicknesses in cases with mild crowding in maxillary teeth. In our study, 28 individuals were randomly allocated and treated with aligners with a thickness of 0.5 mm for Group 1 and 0.75 mm for Group 2 (n=14). Digital treatment plans were made with 3Shape Ortho AnalyzerTM program on virtual models created by intraoral scanning. Model and aligner production was done with 3-dimensional printers and vacuum plate devices. Satisfaction and pain was measured before the aligner is inserted (T0), at the 4th hour (T1), 2nd day (T2), 1st week (T3), 1st month (T4) and when teeth are aligned (T5), pre- and posttreatment models and lateral cephalometric radiographs were compared. There was no significant differences between groups for skeletal values and treatment duration. For intragroup comparisons, changes were significant in all values of maxillary dentoalveolar measurements except for U1-SN angle. Increase in maxillary intercanine, interpremolar, intermolar distances and dental arch length was greater in Group 2. There was no significant difference in pain levels between groups at all times; values were lower in Group 1. Highest pain level was reached at T1 in both groups and decreased over time. Satisfaction level was higher and pain level was lower in Group 1, amount of dentoalveolar change was higher in Group 2. Treatment with 0.5 mm aligner is advantageous for patient comfort; it can be concluded that the treatment efficiency of 0.75 mm aligner is higher.