Ever since the development of lasers in the 1960s and subsequent introduction to the medical and dental field, it has become a must-have armamentarium in the orthodontic and dental office. Lasers offer a wide range of applications in orthodontic practice with the advantage of safety, convenience, reduced postoperative pain & discomfort. Lasers have applications in soft tissue management, hard tissue management as well as in the manufacturing process of various orthodontic appliances.

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Successful orthodontic treatment demands the need for adequate anchorage reinforcement. The growing need for minimum compliance and maximum curative effects has made the mini-implants more acceptable as an excellent substitute to traditional orthodontic anchorage. Mini-implants as skeletal anchorage sources can be used to carry out intrusion, extrusion, anterior retraction, molar protraction and distalization, and correction of midline and occlusal canting etc. Endosseous dental implants have begun to be more reliable sources of anchorage. However, because of complicated surgical procedure, long healing time, and limited implant sites—their use as routine clinical anchorage has remained subtle till date. Also, patient acceptability, rate and severity of adverse effects of miniscrews, and variables that influenced success remain unanswered. In the present article, we systematically reviewed some of the available and unswerving literature to quantify success and complications encountered with the use of mini-implants for orthodontic anchorage, to evaluate factors associated with success or failure.

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