The combined use of corticotomy and clear aligners: a case report

OBJECTIVE:   To describe an orthodontic treatment that combines an esthetic approach (clear aligners) with surgery (alveolar corticotomy). MATERIALS AND METHODS:   A patient with moderate dental crowding and Class I skeletal and molar relationships was selected. Orthodontic records of the patient were taken. Periodontal indexes, oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL), and treatment time were evaluated. After we reflected a full-thickness flap beyond the teeth apices, the cortical bone was exposed on the buccal aspect and a modified corticotomy procedure was performed. Interproximal corticotomy cuts were extended through the entire thickness of the cortical layer, just barely penetrating into medullary bone. Orthodontic force was applied on the teeth immediately after surgery. RESULTS:   Total treatment time was 2 months. Periodontal indexes were improved after correction of crowding. A deterioration of OHRQoL was limited to 3 days following surgery. CONCLUSION:   This case report may encourage the use, limited to selected cases, of corticotomy associated with clear aligners to treat moderate crowding

Evaluation of Rust code verbosity, understandability and complexity

Rust is an innovative programming language initially implemented by Mozilla, developed to ensure high performance, reliability, and productivity. The final purpose of this study consists of applying a set of common static software metrics to programs written in Rust to assess the verbosity, understandability, organization, complexity, and maintainability of the language. To that extent, nine different implementations of algorithms available in different languages were selected. We computed a set of metrics for Rust, comparing them with the ones obtained from C and a set of object-oriented languages: C++, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript. To parse the software artifacts and compute the metrics, it was leveraged a tool called rust-code-analysis that was extended with a software module, written in Python, with the aim of uniforming and comparing the results. The Rust code had an average verbosity in terms of the raw size of the code. It exposed the most structured source organization in terms of the number of methods. Rust code had a better Cyclomatic Complexity, Halstead Metrics, and Maintainability Indexes than C and C++ but performed worse than the other considered object-oriented languages. Lastly, the Rust code exhibited the lowest COGNITIVE complexity of all languages. The collected measures prove that the Rust language has average complexity and maintainability compared to a set of popular languages. It is more easily maintainable and less complex than the C and C++ languages, which can be considered syntactically similar. These results, paired with the memory safety and safe concurrency characteristics of the language, can encourage wider adoption of the language of Rust in substitution of the C language in both the open-source and industrial environments

Parametric Study on the Effect of Steel Confinement in Short Bridge Piers Retrofitted with Externally-Wrapped FRP

Confinement of reinforced concrete (RC) piers generally has a beneficial effect on both the compressive strength and the ductility of the confined member. Thus, externally-bonded fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) wrapping is often used as a retrofit technique for bridge piers when additional compressive strength is needed. This study employs finite element analysis and a recently developed FRP-and-steel confined concrete model to investigate the influence of internal steel confinement on the response of circular RC columns confined with FRP and subject to concentric axial load. This new model leads to more accurate estimates of the response of these columns, what is particularly relevant for piers in short span bridges that are subjected mainly to vertical loads, for which it could lead to a more efficient and economical piers’ retrofit, as well as a more accurate and less conservative bridge rating. A parametric study is conducted to examine the importance of some key parameters in the design of such columns

Climate Change Effects on the Performance of Single-Family Residential Buildings in the US Gulf Coast

The US Gulf Coast is often struck by severe hurricane events. These natural events can cause massive economic and life losses. Based on the projected increase in global sea surface temperature and in population residing along the US Gulf Coast region, the intensity of future hurricanes is expected to increase with time in conjunction with an increase in vulnerability, leading to a significant increase of the risk for future catastrophic hurricane events. Therefore, there is an urgent research need for hurricane risk assessment and mitigation techniques that can quantify the effects of climate change. This paper presents a comprehensive statistical model to account for the effects of climate change on hurricane wind hazard. The model is based on a linear regression of historical hurricane characteristics versus historical sea surface temperature at the time and location of the hurricanes. The proposed model is validated by comparing the simulated hurricane wind speed distributions at any given site along the US Gulf Coast with the wind speed data from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The validated wind speed model is used, in conjunction with the future climatological scenarios proposed by the 5th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to forecast future hurricane wind speed distributions along the US Gulf Coast. These wind speed distributions are used within a multilayer Monte Carlo simulation implementation of the Performance-Based Hurricane Engineering framework to estimate potential hurricane-induced losses for a single-family residential building located near Miami, FL. The loss analysis results show that the expected hurricane-induced losses could increase by up to 35% under the projected worst-case scenario in 2060 when compared to the expected losses corresponding to the 2015 climatological conditions

Evaluation of alveolar cortical bone thickness and density for orthodontic mini-implant placement

Objective: Mini-implant stability is primarily related to bone quality and quantity. This study evaluated alveolar cortical bone thickness and density differences between interradicular sites at different levels from the alveolar crest, and assessed the differences between adolescents (12-18 years of age) and adults (19-50 years of age), males and females, upper and lower arch, anterior and posterior region of jaws and buccal and oral side. Study Design: In this retrospective study, 48 Computed Tomography scans, performed for oral surgery purposes were selected from dental records of 3,223 Caucasian orthodontic patients. The SimPlant software (Materialise, Leuven, Belgium) was used to measure cortical bone thickness and density at 13 interradicular sites and four bone levels ( 2,4,6 and 8 mm ). For the statistical analysis descriptive statistics, Student's t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. Results: Statistically significant differences in alveolar cortical bone thickness and density between age, gender, sites and sides were found (P<0.05). The Pearson correlation coefficient demonstrated a significant linear increasing of thickness and density from crest to base of alveolar crest (P.0.05). Conclusion. Adults show a thicker alveolar cortical bone than adolescents. Alveolar cortical bone thickness and density were greater in males than in females, in mandible than in maxilla, in the posterior region than the anterior, in oral than buccal side. There is an increase of thickness and density from crest to base of alveolar crest

Impaction of permanent mandibular second molar: a retrospective study

Objective: To determine the prevalence of impacted mandibular second molar (MM2) and the association between MM2 impaction and crowding. The clinical significance of the angle between first and second mandibular molar and of the space between the first mandibular molar (MM1) and the anterior margin of mandibular ramus in MM2 impaction were also evaluated. Material and Methods: In this retrospective study , from the dental records of 2,945 caucasian young orthodontics patients, 40 subjects with MM2 impaction were included in a study group (SG) and compared with a control group (CG) of 200 subjects without MM2 impactions. The crowding, the angle of inclination of MM2, the distance between MM1 and mandibular ramus, the canine and molar relationships, and the lower centre line discrepancy were measured. For the statistical analysis , descriptive statistics and t-Student for independent sample groups were used. Results: The prevalence of impacted MM2 was 1.36%. The independent-Samples t-Test between SG and CG showed: the presence of crowding (P<=0.001), an higher angle values of MM2 inclination (P<=0.001) and a smaller distance between MM1 and the anterior margin of mandibular ramus (P<=0.001) in the SG. Conclusion: The impaction of MM2 is a relatively rare occurrence in orthodontic caucasian populations. The crowding, a higher angle values of MM2 inclination and a reduced distance between MM1 and the anterior margin of mandibular ramus, at the time of one third of MM2 root formation (T1), characterize MM2 impaction

Skeletal features in patient affected by maxillary canine impaction

Objective: To analyze the skeletal features of patients with maxillary canine impaction. Material and Methods: The complete pre-treatment records of 1674 orthodontic patients were examined. From the subjects with maxillary impacted canine 12 patients were excluded , remaining 108. The subjects with maxillary impacted canine were divided into two study groups: a palatally displaced canine group (PDCG) (77 patients) and a buccally displaced canine group (BDCG) (31 patients). The values of the skeletal features measured on the lateral cephalometric radiograph were compared with a control group (CG) of 121 subjects randomly selected from the initial sample without maxillary canine impaction. The statistical analysis of the difference between the study groups and the CG was tested using X2 test and Fisher's exact test. The level of significance was set at P <=0.05. Results: The CG was characterized by increased values of A point-Nasion-B point angle (ANB) and by a retropositioned or smaller lower jaw. PDCG patients showed normal skeletal features compared to the CG, presenting mainly I class and lower rank of II and III sagittal skeletal features. PDCG subjects presented also normal values of the Steiner vertical skeletal relationship angles with normal facial divergence compared to the CG. PDCG cases were also characterized by horizontal and prognathic growth. BDCG did not present significant differences in skeletal features compared to the CG, except for an increased ANB. Conclusions: Palatally displaced canine (PDC) was frequently the only orthodontic problem of patients and was not associated whit altered skeletal features. The frequent absence of malocclusion in PDC patients explains the delayed identification of this problem. BDCG patients did not present significant differences in skeletal features with respect to the orthodontic population. The presence of both buccally displaced canine (BDC) and malocclusion makes the patient with BDC both aware of the need for, and motivated to undergo, orthodontic treatment

Can computer-guided surgery help orthodontics in miniscrew insertion and corticotomies? A narrative review

Orthodontics has considerably increased the use of technology combined with surgery as a tool to improve dental movements in terms of predictability, acceleration of movement, and fewer side effects. To achieve these goals miniscrews and corticotomy were introduced. The digital workflow permits an increase in the accuracy of surgical and orthodontic setups. The tool that transfers the information is the CAD/CAM (Computer-Aided Design/ Computer-Aided Manufacturing) template. The aim of this review is to illustrate the use of computer-guided surgery in orthodontics regarding miniscrews and piezocision. The search strategy was a combination of Medical Subject Headings (Mesh) and free text words for PubMed. A total of 27 articles were included in this review: 16 concerned miniscrews and 11 concerned corticotomy. The current need for faster treatments, the improved systems of anchorage, and the evolution of imaging technologies require operators to be knowledgeable of the digital workflow. CAD/CAM templates allow greater precision and predictability of miniscrew insertion even if in the hands of less experienced clinicians and permit a better orientation and depth of the cortical incision. In conclusion, digital planning makes surgery faster and easier and allows for the identification and correction of any potential problem before the procedure