Alkaline phosphatase activity in gingival crevicular fluid during canine retraction.

OBJECTIVES

The aim of the study was to investigate alkaline phosphatase activity in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) during orthodontic tooth movement in humans.

SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION

Postgraduate orthodontic clinic. Ten female patients requiring all first premolar extractions were selected and treated with standard edgewise mechanotherapy.

EXPERIMENTAL VARIABLE

Canine retraction was done using 100 g sentalloy springs. Maxillary canine on one side acted as experimental site while the contralateral canine acted as control.

OUTCOME MEASURE

Gingival crevicular fluid was collected from mesial and distal of canines before initiation of canine retraction (baseline), immediately after initiation of retraction, and on 1st, 7th, 14th and 21st day and the alkaline phosphatase activity was estimated.

RESULTS

The results show significant (p < 0.05) changes in alkaline phosphatase activity on the 7th, 14th and 21st day on both mesial and distal aspects of the compared experimental and control sides. The peak in enzyme activity occurred on the 14th day of initiation of retraction followed by a significant fall in activity especially on the mesial aspect.

CONCLUSIONS

The study showed that alkaline phosphatase activity could be successfully estimated in the GCF using calorimetric estimation assay kits. The enzyme activity showed variation according to the amount of tooth movement.