Adult Patients

Current advances in orthodontics have broadened the possibilities of invisible orthodontic appliances offered to adult patients. For some patients, aesthetic considerations during treatment are as important as other factors, such as comfort, pain, cost, or length of treatment . Traditional labial appliances (Buccal) remain the main orthodontic appliance used. The introduction of the lingual appliance (Lingual) provided a signi cant aesthetic advantage to patients ( Fujita, 1978 ), but functional dif culties and a prolonged adaptation reduced its use until recent years ( Sinclair et al. , 1986 ; Creekmore, 1989 ). In 1997, the InvisalignTM appliance was introduced. This appliance is aesthetically superior to the labial appliance and allows for its removal for eating and cleaning ( Wong, 2002 ). The main disadvantages of the invisible techniques (Lingual and InvisalignTM) are a higher cost and technical limitations. The mean accuracy of tooth movement in InvisalignTM is 41 per cent. The most accurate movement is associated with lingual constriction (47.1 per cent ), and the least accurate movement is extrusion (29.6 per cent ; Kravitz et al. , 2009 ). In addition, InvisalignTM patients demonstrated Adult patients’ a djustability to o rthodontic a ppliances. Part I: