Orthodontic Force Measuring Devices: Current and Future

Background: Malocclusion is one of the three major oral diseases which affect the quality of human life and mental health. The fixed appliance technology is most commonly used to treat malocclusion. Nowadays, the designs of orthodontic appliances mostly rely on doctors’ experience. It is significant to study orthodontic forces to improve the effectiveness of orthodontic treatment and alleviate the sufferings of the patients. The orthodontic force measurement is the fundamental of the research on the orthodontic forces. Objective: This paper attempts to present a general summarization of recent studies about orthodontic force measuring devices and introduce their respective characteristics and development including their components and experimental steps. Methods: This paper reviews various representative studies related to the orthodontic force measuring devices. The research topics discussed the components of recent orthodontic force measuring devices, experimental steps, experimental materials, applications and the characteristic of the presented orthodontic force measuring devices. Results: The advantages and disadvantages of different types of the orthodontic force measuring devices are discussed, and the structural characteristics are concluded. In addition, the main problems in its development are analyzed, the solutions to the issues and the current and future research on orthodontic force measuring device are discussed. Conclusion: Orthodontic force measuring device plays an important role in the orthodontic measurement. The orthodontic force measurement result can help orthodontic doctors improve the effectiveness of the orthodontic treatment. And further improvements are needed in the aspects of experimental dentition model built by biomimetic materials, the rebuilt of the real biological environment of human mouth and portability of the orthodontic force measuring devices. More studies on the orthodontic force measuring device should be conducted. Keywords: Direct measurement, dynamics principle, indirect measurement, orthodontic force, orthodontic force measuring device, tooth model, tooth movement.