title: Systemic effects of fluoxetine on the amount of tooth movement, root resorption, and alveolar bone remodeling during orthodontic force application in rat.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Antidepressant drugs such as fluoxetine are of the most commonly used drugs among the public. These drugs may impact the regulation of bone cell functioning, and thus affect orthodontic tooth movement. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of fluoxetine on tooth movements during orthodontic treatment in rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, 30 male rats were randomly assigned into two groups and injected with fluoxetine 10 mg/kg (experimental group) and normal saline (control group) for a period of 1-month intraperitoneally 5 times/week. Then, the rats were anesthetized and a nickel-titanium closed-coil spring was placed between the left maxillary first molar and left maxillary central incisors of all samples, and then fluoxetine (experimental group) and normal saline (control group) were injected for another 3 weeks by the same method. After measuring tooth movements, rats were sacrificed, and histomorphometric analyses were conducted and the obtained data were statistically analyzed using independent t-test and the significance was set at 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Following the fluoxetine injection, the mean amount of tooth movements in the experimental group was reduced compared to the control group, which was not statistically significant (P = 0.14). There was no significant difference between the two groups regarding bone apposition rate (P = 0.83), external root resorption rate (P = 0.1), and mean number of root resorption lacunae (P = 0.16).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Within the limitations of this study, systemic use of fluoxetine may cause insignificant reduction of tooth movement rate in rats; however, this subject needs more evaluations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rafiei
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, School of Dentistry, Islamic Azad University, Isfahan (Khorasgan) Branch, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Soosan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sadeghian
authors.affiliation: Dental Materials Research Center and Department of Oral Pathology, School of Dentistry, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Nakisa
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Torabinia
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran.
authors.forename: Valiollah
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hajhashemi
keywords: Antidepressant drugs; bone remodeling; fluoxetine; root resorption; tooth movement