READERS' FORUM

Letters to the editor*

Maxillary molar mesialization with
palatal mini-implants
W e sincerely compliment the journal on the pub-
lication of the Clinician's Corner article in the
May issue (Wilmes B, Vasudavan S, and Drescher D.
Maxillary molar mesialization with the use of
palatal mini-implants for direct anchorage in an
adolescent patient. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Or-
thop 2019;155:725-32). It was a pleasure reading
the article, which reported a novel technique for
second molar mesialization with compromised first
permanent molars. We would like to put forward a
few queries regarding the article.
First, the pretreatment intraoral photographs (Fig 1)
show that both maxillary first permanent molars are
missing, but in the radiograph, the maxillary right first
permanent molar is present. The pretreatment 3-
dimensional scans of the maxilla (Fig 8) show that the
first permanent molar of the right side is present, but
the author had stated that both first molars were lost.
It would be of great help if we could know about this
mismatch.
Second, the superimposition of the 3-dimensional
scan (Fig 8) shows that only the left second permanent
molar has been mesialized, whereas the author had pre-
viously stated that both the right and left second perma-
nent molars were mesialized simultaneously.
It would be of great help if you could enlighten us
regarding these queries.
Pratik Chandra
Richa Dhingra
Parijat Chakraborty
Ragni Tandon
Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2020;157:4
0889-5406/$36.00
Ó 2019 by the American Association of Orthodontists. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2019.10.004
Authors' response
The reader is correct that the maxillary right molar was
still in situ when the panoramic radiograph and the
initial impressions were recorded (Figs 1 and 8). How-
ever, as mentioned in the manuscript, the panoramic
radiograph confirmed the diagnosis of periapical
periodontitis of the maxillary right first molar. Conse-
quently, consensus was established across the refer-
ring dentist, parents, and the patient to proceed with
extraction of the tooth. To optimize the timing, the
extraction procedure was deferred until immediately
before the commencement of treatment to facilitate
expedient space closure (owing to the underlying
expected regional acceleratory phenomenon). We
draw the reader's attention to Figures 3 and 4 illus-
trating that both the maxillary first molars are absent,
and spaces are evident.
Figure 8 of the manuscript illustrates superimposition
of the pretreatment and posttreatment scans. The maxil-
lary second molars have been mesialized or protracted
into the anterior position of the previously removed first
molars. The maxillary right second molar (after treat-
ment) is obscured by the maxillary right first molar
(before treatment), likely because of the relatively dimin-
ished dimension of the second molar.
Benedict Wilmes
Sivabalan Vasudavan
Dieter Drescher
Duesseldorf, Germany and Perth, Australia
Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2020;157:4
0889-5406/$36.00
Ó 2019 by the American Association of Orthodontists. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ajodo.2019.10.005
Erratum
Correction to: Wang Q, Ma J, Wang B, Zhang X, Yin Y,
and Bai H. Alterations of the oral microbiome in patients
treated with the Invisalign system or with fixed appli-
ances. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2019;156:
633-40.
The second author's name was misspelled in the

W e sincerely appreciate the queries made by the

AJO-DO reader, which we would like to address
as follows:
author information section of this article. The sen-
tence should read: Qian Wang and Jin-bao Ma are
joint first authors and contributed equally to this
work.

* The viewpoints expressed are solely those of the author(s) and do not reflect
those of the editor(s), publisher(s), or Association.