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. 2025 Aug 22;15:30839. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-16658-2

Table 2.

Descriptive statistics of levels of spontaneous and chewing pain during separation and the early stages of leveling and alignment in the three groups along with p-values of significance testing.

Separators
Time Group N Spontaneous pain Chewing pain
Mean (SD) P-value* Pairwise comparisons § Mean (SD) P-value* Pairwise comparisons§ P-value
Pair P-value Pair
h0 Laser 18 0.83 (1.04) 0.430 0.50 (1.20) 0.054
Drug 18 1.27 (1.31) 1.72 (1.93)
Control 18 1.38 (1.46) 1.83 (1.54)
1 h Laser 18 0.44 (0.85) 0.005 Laser vs. Drug 0.063 0.77 (1.21) 0.011 Laser vs. Drug 0.051
Drug 18 1.88 (2.63) Laser vs. Control 0.002 2.55 (3.01) Laser vs. Control 0.003
Control 18 2.38 (2.37) Drug vs. Control 0.352 2.94 (2.57) Drug vs. Control 0.411
24 h Laser 18 3.77 (2.75) 0.086 5.22 (2.79) 0.281ǂ
Drug 18 3.61 (2.83) 5.94 (2.66)
Control 18 5.22 (2.51) 6.66 (2.58)
48 h Laser 18 3.33 (2.22) 0.044 Laser vs. Drug 0.323 4.83 (2.22) 0.010ǂ Laser vs. Drug 0.263
Drug 18 3.61 (1.68) Laser vs. Control 0.014 5.94 (1.92) Laser vs. Control 0.007
Control 18 5.11 (2.58) Drug vs. Control 0.068 7.05 (2.15) Drug vs. Control 0.263
1 week Laser 18 0.83 (1.20) 0.276 2.05 (2.01) 0.114
Drug 18 1.16 (1.50) 2.44 (1.91)
Control 18 1.66 (2.32) 3.55 (2.63)
0.014 NiTi and 0.016 NiTi archwires
Time Group N 0.014 inch archwire 0.016 inch archwire
Spontaneous pain Chewing pain Spontaneous pain Chewing pain
Mean (SD) P-value* Mean (SD) P-value* Mean (SD) P-value* Mean (SD) P-value*
h0 Laser 18 0.56 (0.92) 0.135 1.61 (2.43) 0.700 0.67 (1.24) 0.056 1 (1.08) 0.140
Drug 18 1.22 (1.56) 1.67 (2.03) 1.28 (0.89) 1.83 (1.50)
Control 18 1.33 (1.78) 1.61 (1.79) 0.94 (1.21) 1.17 (1.38)
1 h Laser 18 1 (1.33) 0.079 1.78 (2.34) 0.124 1.11 (1.68) 0.422 1.61 (1.72) 0.409
Drug 18 2 (2.28) 2.89 (2.42) 1.56 (1.65) 2.28 (2.02)
Control 18 2.28 (2.14) 3.44 (2.89) 1.72 (1.99) 2.33 (2.11)
24 h Laser 18 2.83 (2.50) 0.322 4.56 (2.45) 0.308 ǂ 0.89 (1.57) 0.067 1.78 (1.52) 0.299
Drug 18 3.50 (2.66) 6 (3.11) 1.44 (1.76) 2.11 (1.71)
Control 18 3.94 (2.96) 5.44 (2.85) 2.17 (2.36) 2.78 (2.29)
48 h Laser 18 2.78 (3.32) 0.564 4.11 (2.65) 0.522 0.83 (1.42) 0.192 1.44 (1.46) 0.160
Drug 18 3.11 (2.68) 5.22 (3.28) 1.33 (1.64) 1.33 (1.19)
Control 18 3.33 (2.97) 4.89 (3.03) 1.83 (2.28) 2.50 (2.43)
1 week Laser 18 0.94 (1.30) 0.360 1.89 (1.71) 0.212 0.44 (0.92) 0.264 0.78 (0.88) 0.260
Drug 18 1.44 (2.20) 3.22 (2.88) 0.83 (1.62) 0.44 (0.62)
Control 18 2.06 (2.34) 3.61 (3.15) 1 (1.28) 1.56 (1.50)
Next visit Laser 18 0.11 (0.47) 0.160 0.56 (0.98) 0.320 0.11 (0.32) 0.308 0.11 (0.32) 0.242
Drug 18 0.67 (1.03) 0.89 (1.84) 0.11 (0.32) 0.39 (0.70)
Control 18 1.06 (1.35) 1.94 (2.29) 0.28 (0.46) 0.44 (0.70)

* Kruskal-Wallis test was applied unless another test was indicated; †: Mann-Whitney U test was used for pairwise comparisons unless another test was indicated; ǂ: One-way ANOVA; underlined P-values are related to Tukey’s HSD tests; §: pairwise comparisons were applied when a significant difference was found between the groups in general; level of significance was set at 0.05 and Bonferroni’s correction was applied for post-hoc tests (i.e., adjusted α = 0.016); N: number of patients; h0: immediately.