Assessment of orthodontic treatment efficacy of Clarity Aligners using the Peer Assessment Rating index and the American Board of Orthodontics Cast-Radiograph Evaluation

Introduction

3M Oral Care Solutions (St Paul, Minn) has recently introduced Clarity Aligners into the market. This cohort study evaluated the orthodontic treatment efficacy of this clear aligner system using the Peer Assessment Rating (PAR) index and the American Board of Orthodontics Cast-Radiograph Evaluation (CR-Eval).

Methods

Pretreatment and posttreatment dental models of 87 subjects who had undergone orthodontic treatment using Clarity Aligners in both arches to align their teeth to a target setup were independently evaluated by 4 examiners using the PAR index and the American Board of Orthodontics CR-Eval. Changes in CR-Eval and PAR scores from pretreatment to posttreatment were calculated, with PAR score reductions also expressed as percentages.

Results

Treatment with Clarity Aligners reduced the CR-Eval scores from 39.05 ± 14.98 to 30.34 ± 8.76, resulting in a statistically significant difference of 8.76 ± 11.45 between pretreatment and posttreatment scores. Similarly, aligner treatment reduced the weighted PAR scores from 13.40 ± 9.26 to 5.80 ± 4.84, resulting in a statistically significant difference of 7.50 ± 7.56 between pretreatment and posttreatment scores. The overall median PAR reduction was 53%, with 94% of the subjects having reduced PAR scores after treatment. Seventy-eight percent of subjects had >30% PAR reduction, 57% had >50% PAR reduction, and 33% had >70% PAR reduction.

Conclusions

The results suggest that Clarity Aligners may be an effective treatment modality in mild to moderate malocclusions.