Align Technology Inc, San Jose, Calif, announced at its Invisalign Ortho Summit the upcoming release of Invisalign G6 for first premolar extraction.

Invisalign G6 is intended to improve clinical outcomes for orthodontic treatment of severe crowding and bimaxillary protrusion, a common type of malocclusion especially prevalent in Asia that requires premolar extraction. Align’s new, first premolar extraction solution provides vertical control and root parallelism using new SmartStage technology and SmartForce® features that optimize the progression of tooth movements for first premolar extraction treatment planned for maximum anchorage.

The nature of malocclusion that requires first premolar tooth extraction is an orthodontic problem that affects more than 50% of patients in Asia, 20% in Europe, and 12% in North America.

SmartStage technology allows tooth movements to be programmed to optimize the progression of tooth movements and provide aligner activation. This function is designed to eliminate unwanted tipping and unwanted anterior extrusion during retraction.

The new SmartForce features are designed to deliver the force systems necessary to achieve predictable tooth movements, and include Optimized Retraction Attachments (devised to work with SmartStage technology for effective bodily movement during canine retraction, with or without elastics) and Optimized Anchorage Attachments (created to work with SmartStage technology to maximize posterior anchorage).

Invisalign G6 will be available to Invisalign-trained providers beginning in the first quarter of 2015 with limited commercialization. A full commercialization rollout will follow in Asia Pacific, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Latin America throughout 2015 and in early 2016 in North America.