Table 1 Eligibility criteria

Participants

Female animal subjects during pregnancy or lactation undergoing orthodontic tooth movement.

Male animal subjects

Female animal subjects under medication, with pathological conditions or dietary deficiencies.

Interventions

All types of orthodontic interventions to induce movement of teeth.

Other kinds of orthodontic interventions, like growth modification, etc.

Subjects undergoing any kind of orthodontic tooth movement in conjunction with other clinical interventions such as tooth extraction, etc.

Comparisons

Female animal subjects not pregnant or lactating undergoing orthodontic tooth movement.

Outcomes

Quantitative data regarding the amount of orthodontic tooth movement measured by various ways [directly or from plaster models with callipers, feeler gauges, etc.; from histological cuts directly on the optical microscope or from digital photos; radiographs of any kind i.e. lateral cephalometric radiographs, Cone Beam CT, micro-CT, etc.].

Qualitative assessments regarding the amount of orthodontic tooth movement.

Study design

Experimental prospective controlled studies with a separate control group (according to the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network algorithm for classifying study design (available at http://www.sign.ac.uk/assets/study_design.pdf).

Human studies

Case studies, cross-over studies, studies without a separate control group.

In vitro, ex-vivo or in silico studies.

Reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analyses.

Less than 5 subjects per group analysed [36].