Orthodontists would love to have a means of making teeth move faster. Recently another product “Acceledent® ” produced by OrthoAccel® has been intensively marketed with claims that it can speed up tooth movement by up to 50 % and possibly make the teeth less uncomfortable. It is intended to be used in combination with orthodontic treatment, it can be used with labial (outside braces) of the metal or ceramic type, or with inside braces (lingual braces ) for instance of the win™ or incognito™ or Harmony ™ type or with aligners like invisalign™ . This device is very similar to the VPRO5 ™ which is produced by Propel Orthodontics ™ and both devices would appear to have a similar suggested means of action. It is suggested that this device may accelerate orthodontic tooth movement (in a non-surgical way). The Propel VPRO5 was the subject of a separate blog in this series.
Acceledent emits small vibrations or micropulses
Acceledent® emits small vibrations or “micropulses” that it is suggested speed up tooth movement by 3 possible means.
(a) Possibly through a beneficial effect on the bone biology.
(b) By facilitating the sliding of teeth along the orthodontic wires.
(c) By helping to seat orthodontic aligners .
It is recommended by the manufacturers that it is worn for 20 minutes per day.
Patient wearing acceledent ™ appliance
Acceledent ™ device with mouth piece.
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The acceledent® device is being marketed very aggressively. However there is a lack of high quality research as to its effectiveness.That is, it possibly may not speed up orthodontic tooth ( 1 , 2 )movement or reduce discomfort. The appliance is expensive €850 -€1000. Orthodontics is replete with examples of devices and techniques that are marketed with fantastic claims and subsequently are shown not to be effective. I would prefer to wait until good quality research shows acceledent ® to be effective before I recommend its use to my patients.
This orthodontic blog was written by Dr John Buckley who is a specialist orthodontist at Clonmel Orthodontics in Riverhouse orthodontic practice in Clonmel County Tipperary, Ireland. They provide orthodontics to county Tipperary and the neighbouring counties of Waterford, kilkenny, Limerick and Cork , and beyond.
Dr Buckley has practised as a specialist orthodontist in Clonmel for 20 years. In addition to his orthodontic qualifications which he held before he commenced orthodontic practice , Dr Buckley was awarded a First class masters degree in Lingual orthodontics from the University of Hannover medical school (MHH) in 2012. This masters degree is directed by Professor Dirk Wiechmann who is the inventor of both the incognito™ and win™ lingual appliances. Dr Buckley was the first orthodontist in Ireland to be awarded this qualification. In 2016 he was accepted as an active member of the European Society Of Lingual Orthodontics (ESLO). To become an active member it is necessary for candidates to submit the records of finished lingual cases. If the cases are deemed to be of a sufficiently high standard then the candidate is accepted as an active member of ESLO. Dr Buckley is the first orthodontist in Ireland to be accepted as an active member of ESLO.