The Effect of Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy on Orthodontic Relapse in a Rat Model

Extracorporeal shockwave therapy (ESWT) is a non-invasive treatment modality that utilizes acoustic waves that generate a transient pressure disturbance that spreads rapidly in a three-dimensional space when applied to a fluid medium. Research has shown that ESWT promotes healing in refractory wounds, bone fractures, and alters expression of key cytokines, growth factors, and cells involved in bone metabolism The purposes of this study are to evaluate the effect of ESWT on the rate of orthodontic relapse in a rat model, as well as its systemic effects on bone metabolism. To conduct measurements in our rat model, we utilized three-dimensional (3D) scans of rat teeth and advanced 3D inspection software to develop an accurate reproducible protocol and measure distances between teeth during orthodontic relapse in rats. Our results showed that a single episode of 1,000 shockwaves did not have any significant effect on orthodontic relapse in our rat model. In addition, the dose of ESWT we used in this study did not exhibit any systemic effects on the ratio of serum OPG/RANKL in our rat model.