Guidelines for contemporary air-rotor stripping.

Abstract

A stripping (ARS) was first described more than 20 years ago in this journal as an alternative to extraction or expansion in borderline cases.1 Since then, further studies have indicated that hard and soft dental tissues can respond to the physiological trigger of interproximal reduction by nonpathological adaptation, and that an ARS site may be more resistant to carious and periodontal disease than unaltered enamel surfaces are.2-11 ARS can be used in adolescents as well as adults, since the interproximal enamel thickness is basically the same in both groups. Unlike previous methods of interproximal reduction, ARS generates space primarily, although not exclusively, in the buccal segments. The amount of ARS can be directly correlated to the amount of crowding to be resolved. If 6mm of arch length is needed, 6mm of space can be created. Using the guideline of 1mm of interproximal reduction at each contact point, as much as 8mm of space can be generated in the buccal segments of one dental arch (Fig. 1). Another unique feature of ARS is that it is performed with a high-speed turbine handpiece, rather than hand-pulled abrasive strips or handpiece-mounted disks. An abrasive strip is awk-