Aim This review provides information about biology of tooth movement, receptor activator of nuclear factor kappa B ligand (RANKL) and its role in bone resorption mechanism of orthodontic tooth movement, different methods for acceleration of orthodontic treatment andprevious studies for measuring RANKL level associated with different surgical methods for accelerating orthodontic tooth movement. Method Our search was done using the Google scholar and Pubmed sites with the following key words: RANKL, bone resorption, orthodontic tooth movement, and methods for acceleration. Conclusion RANKL is the key final effector cytokine in osteoclastogensis. It is capable of inducing osteoclast formation and activation leading to bone resorption. Methods that accelerate orthodontic tooth movement result in an increase in the RANKL level.