We want to praise Emmanuel Chan et al for another excellent short-term (28 days) study of root resorption, published in the February 2018 issue of the AJO-DO (Chan E, Dalci O, Petocz P, Papadopoulou AK, Darendeliler MA. Physical properties of root cementum: part 26. Effects of micro-osteoperforations on orthodontic root resorption: a microcomputed tomography study. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2018; 153:204-13).

To our surprise, the sentence, “However, these results should be verified in patients who are undergoing full-length orthodontic treatment,” in the Abstract was ignored by the editorial board of the Journal and the readers.

We are aware that in contrast to money market changes, perceptual revolutions, especially those related to science, usually take a long time.

This sentence is, as we see it, a result of a long-lasting debate between us and most researchers in the apical root shortening (ARS) field. Several times, we have published letters and articles saying, shortly, that most if not all conclusions based on short-term studies (up to 4 months!) designed to explore the effects of different parameters on orthodontically moving and later extracting teeth, performed on volunteers, cannot serve as meaningful and quotable clinical data related to ARS seen or detected after full orthodontic treatment. We further believe that the orthodontic field must find new methods that may bring valuable data on this issue. This is part of a campaign stating that “until proven otherwise, we certainly do not know the actual and definite effect of any parameter studied by a short-term research (force level, mechanics, sex, age, type of bracket, and so on) related to ARS.”

We were proud that 2 of our articles related to OIIRR were included in the AJO-DO article discussing “Highly cited orthodontic articles from 2000 to 2015” (Prevezanos P, Tsolakis AI, Christou P. Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2018; 153:61-9). However, we again want to highlight our disclosure, published in July 2017 issue of the Journal saying (shortly): We should also be criticized, in our past reviews, for being naive and drawing conclusions from short-term studies (Brezniak N, Wasserstein A. Effects of short-term in-vivo studies on orthodontic root resorption paradigms [letter to the editor], Am J Orthod Dentofacial Orthop 2017; 152:11).

We believe that this above-quoted sentence, written by one of the most respected groups in the orthodontically induced inflammatory root resorption field, is the seed of a perceptual revolution that the specialty deserves to find the real factors affecting ARS in orthodontics and establish ways to prevent it.