Are orthodontic distalizers reinforced with the temporary skeletal anchorage devices effective?

INTRODUCTION Our objective was to perform a systematic review of studies pertaining to the distalization of teeth with appliances reinforced with temporary skeletal anchorage devices. METHODS PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Knowledge, Ovid, and Scopus were searched until the second week of August 2010 to identify all articles reporting on the use of orthodontic implants or miniplates in distalization of teeth. The quality of the relevant studies was ranked on an 11-point scale, from low to high quality. RESULTS Twelve relevant articles were identified. The distal movement of the maxillary molars was from 3.3 to 6.4 mm; the concomitant molar distal tipping was from 0.80° to 12.20°. The maxillary incisors remained stable during molar distalization. The assessment of study quality showed that 8 studies were of low and 4 of medium quality. CONCLUSIONS Molar distalizers reinforced with the temporary skeletal anchorage devices seem to effectively move molars distally without unwanted mesial incisor tipping. Because of the lack of high-quality studies, however, the findings of this study should be interpreted with caution.