Stress distribution of anterior tooth apex and their surrounding alveolar bone during maxillary anterior intrusion on segmented and continuous wires (3D finite element analysis)

Stress distribution is one of the most important factor in understanding orthodontic tooth movement. This research aimed to analyze stress distribution of anterior tooth apex and their surrounding alveolar bone during maxillary anterior intrusion using segmented and continuous wires with various miniscrew vertical positions. Six 3D maxillary models were assembled and divided by the type of wires used (continuous and segmented wires) and three different vertical position of the miniscrew (3,5,8 mm). Simulation revealed that a statistically significant difference were found on anterior tooth apex with different miniscrew vertical position within segmented groups, but not in continuous groups (p < 0.05). Meanwhile, stress generated on alveolar bone was not proportioned with the increase of miniscrew vertical position.