Objective
Our aim was to study the effect of Atorvastatin on relapse after orthodontic force.
Materials and methods
A case control study on 16 healthy male white New Zealand rabbits with normally developed dentition. Animals were anesthetized, a closed coil Ni-Ti spring was inserted between the lower incisors and the lower 1st premolar. After 3 weeks the appliance was removed, records were taken. Animals were split randomly into 2 groups; study group was fed 20mg/kg of Atorvastatin Calcium powder suspended in distilled water orally via gavage daily for 21 days. Control group were force fed an equal amount of phosphate-buffered saline solution via gavage also. After 21 days another record was taken. One animal was randomly selected from both groups for histological analysis. Osteoclastic count, osteoblastic count, cortical thickness, number of bone trabeculae, bone density, and number of blood vessels were among the histomorphometric characteristics assessed.
Results
The two groups showed significant difference regarding mean distance before and after treatment. Additionally, control group showed significantly higher mean relapse than study group. The relapse% was significantly higher in control than study group. The mean number of osteoblasts was insignificantly higher in controls than cases. The mean number of osteoclasts was significantly lower in controls than cases. Cases showed significantly lower mean bone density compared with controls.
Conclusion
Our results show potential positive effect of atorvastatin on decreasing the percentage of relapse after orthodontic tooth movement in animal model, both relapse percentage and some of histomorphometric parameters were related to bone remodeling.