Tooth movement with dental anchorage vs. skeletal anchorage: A systematic review of clinical trials

The aim of this study is to compare the time and movement of orthodontic treatment using dental anchorage and skeletal anchorage in adolescent and adult patients with dental malocclusions. A systematic search was conducted in the Embase, PubMed, Lilacs, Cochrane, Trip, and Scopus databases up to October 2022. All the articles were selected using title and abstract, applying the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Disagreements were resolved with a third author. Finally, a full-text selection took place. The data extraction was conducted by two authors who independently evaluated the risk of bias. The methodological quality of the randomized clinical trials was evaluated using the Cochrane tool for the evaluation of the randomized clinical trials. Six articles were included in the data analysis. There were four clinical trials and two randomized clinical trials. A total of 176 patients was obtained with an age range between 14 and 46 years. Four studies showed significant differences when comparing the two anchorages in retraction or distalization of tooth groups, and two showed no differences when using dental and skeletal anchorage for vertical movements; only the articles with vertical movements showed relapse. We can conclude that skeletal anchorage generates precise and stable horizontal movements without overloading or changing the position of the molar. Future studies must incorporate three-dimensional technology for greater clinical accuracy.