Effect of nicotine exposure on the rate of orthodontic tooth movement: a meta-analysis based on animal studies

Abstract

Background: Nicotine exposure has been reported to modify bone metabolism with potential effects on the rate of orthodontic tooth movement.

Aim: To systematically investigate and appraise the quality of the available evidence from animal studies regarding the effect of nicotine exposure on the rate of orthodontic tooth movement in animal subjects.

Materials and methods: Search without language restriction was performed for published and unpublished studies on electronic databases. Controlled studies investigating the effect of nicotine on the rate of orthodontic tooth movement were considered. Following study retrieval and selection, relevant data was extracted, the risk of bias was assessed using the SYRCLE’s Risk of Bias Tool and the random effects method of combining treatment effects was used.

Results: From the initially identified records, 5 articles meeting the inclusion criteria were selected. Overall, quantitative data synthesis showed that the rate of orthodontic tooth movement in the nicotine exposed rats was higher than in control the group animals. No effect of the concentration or the duration force application was demonstrated following employment of meta-regression techniques. Many of the risk of bias domains assessed were considered to be unclear. Conclusion: Rats administered with nicotine showed accelerated rates of orthodontic tooth movement. Although, information from animal studies cannot be fully translated to human clinical scenarios, the orthodontist should be able to identify patients exposed to nicotine and consider the possible implications for everyday clinical practice.