assessment of the changes in alveolar bone quality after fixed orthodontic therapy: a trabecular structure analysis

background and aims: tooth displacement changes the periodontium. the aim of orthodontic treatment was desired tooth movement with minimum side effects on the alveolar bone quality. the aim of the present study was to assess changes of alveolar trabeculation among children, youth and adults and the two genders. materials and methods: in this cross-sectional study, 63 patients who had been treated in orthodontic department of dental school of shiraz university of medical sciences were chosen with convenient sampling method. they were divided into three groups according to their age. their digitized panoramic radiographs (prs) were evaluated on six interdental sites from the mesial side of the mandibular second molars to the distal side of the mandibular first premolars using a visual index. the trabeculation pattern was assigned as either dense(score 3), dense-sparse(score 2) or sparse(score 1) . data were imported to spss. mean of the scores before treatment (score-b) and mean of them after treatment (score-a) were compared for each group with paired t-test. changes between score-b and sore-a of the groups were compared using one-way anova and post hoc test. results: mean score-a was significantly higher than mean score-b in children (p=0.001). in contrast, mean score-a was significantly lower than mean score-b in the youth (p=0.003). conclusion: orthodontists should be cautious when treating youth and adults regarding the probable, yet possibly temporary, negative effects of orthodontic therapy on the alveolar bone quality.