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

Table 6.

Descriptive statistics of levels of chewing pain throughout the leveling and alignment treatment course along with p-values of significance testing in the three groups.

		Separators Mean (SD)	0.014 NITI Mean (SD)	0.016 NITI Mean (SD)	0.016*0.022 NITI Mean (SD)	0.017*0.025 NITI Mean (SD)	0.019*0.025 NITI Mean (SD)	0.019*0.025 SS Mean (SD)	p-value*
Laser group	H0	0.50 (1.20)	1.61 (2.43)	1 (1.08)	0.9 (0.9)	0.6 (0.9)	0.8 (0.8)	0.5 (0.8)	0.194
	1 h	0.77 (1.21)	1.78 (2.34)	1.61 (1.72)	1.8 (1.6)	0.8 (1)	1.4 (0.9)	0.8 (0.7)	0.166
	24 h	5.22 (2.79)	4.56 (2.45)	1.78 (1.52)	3.1 (2.7)	0.8 (1.1)	2.5 (1.9)	0.9 (1)	< 0.001
	48 h	4.83 (2.22)	4.11 (2.65)	1.44 (1.46)	2.7 (3)	0.8 (1.2)	2.1 (2)	0.8 (0.8)	< 0.001
	1 week	2.05 (2.01)	1.89 (1.71)	0.78 (0.88)	1.8 (1.6)	0.6 (0.9)	0.5 (0.8)	0.2 (0.6)	0.062
	Next visit		0.56 (0.98)	0.11 (0.32)	0.2 (0.4)	0.0 (0)	0.1 (0.5)	0.1 (0.2)	0.054
Drug group	H0	1.72 (1.93)	1.67 (2.03)	1.83 (1.50)	1.2 (1.2)	0.9 (1.4)	0.8 (1)	1.1 (1.1)	0.302
	1 h	2.55 (3.01)	2.89 (2.42)	2.28 (2.02)	1.8 (1.1)	1.2 (1.3)	1.4 (1.7)	1.5 (1.3)	0.211
	24 h	5.94 (2.66)	6 (3.11)	2.11 (1.71)	1.9 (1.2)	1.5 (1.9)	1.4 (1.8)	1.6 (1.3)	< 0.001
	48 h	5.94 (1.92)	5.22 (3.28)	1.33 (1.19)	1.1 (1.1)	0.5 (0.8)	0.9 (1.4)	0.9 (1.3)	< 0.001
	1 week	2.44 (1.91)	3.22 (2.88)	0.44 (0.62)	0.9 (1.2)	0.2 (0.4)	0.4 (0.7)	0.5 (0.9)	0.540
	Next visit		0.89 (1.84)	0.39 (0.70)	0.4 (0.6)	0.1 (0.2)	0.2 (0.5)	0.1 (0.2)	0.074
Control group	H0	1.83 (1.54)	1.61 (1.79)	1.17 (1.38)	1.8 (2.1)	1.6 (1.8)	1.5 (1.4)	1.4 (1.2)	0.908
	1 h	2.94 (2.57)	3.44 (2.89)	2.33 (2.11)	3.2 (2.7)	2.1 (1.4)	2.2 (1.8)	2.2 (1.3)	0.774
	24 h	6.66 (2.58)	5.44 (2.85)	2.78 (2.29)	3.8 (2.2)	2.4 (1.3)	3.1 (2.2)	2.9 (2.4)	< 0.001
	48 h	7.05 (2.15)	4.89 (3.03)	2.50 (2.43)	3.4 (2.4)	1.9 (1.5)	2.7 (2.3)	2.3 (2.1)	< 0.001
	1 week	3.55 (2.63)	3.61 (3.15)	1.56 (1.50)	1.8 (2.2)	1.1 (1.3)	1.2 (1.5)	1.3 (1.6)	0.100
	Next visit		1.94 (2.29)	0.44 (0.70)	0.8 (1.8)	0.2 (0.6)	0.5 (0.9)	0.8 (1.8)	0.087

p-values for multiple comparisons (post hoc tests) §
Pair	Laser group		Drug group		Control group
Pair	24 h †	48 h †	24 h †	48 h †	24 h †	48 h †
SP vs. 0.014	0.488	0.174	0.897	0.406	0.176	0.026
SP vs. 0.016	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
SP vs. 16.22	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.001	< 0.001
*SP vs. 1725**	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
*SP vs. 1925**	0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
SP vs. 19.25SS	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001
0.014 vs. 0.016	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.001	0.001
*0.014 vs. 1622**	0.051	0.037	0.004	0.006	0.077	0.165
*0.014 vs. 1725**	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.001	0.001
*0.014 vs. 1925**	0.014	0.023	0.005	0.004	0.014	0.035
*0.014 vs. 1925 ss**	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	< 0.001	0.001	< 0.001
*0.016 vs. 1622**	0.111	0.271	0.800	0.564	0.122	0.140
*0.016 vs. 1725**	0.026	0.121	0.204	0.022	0.693	0.682
*0.016 vs. 1925**	0.256	0.343	0.168	0.144	0.483	0.699
*0.016 vs. 1925ss**	0.078	0.165	0.357	0.112	0.880	1.000
*1622 vs. 1725*	0.002	0.017	0.157	0.090	0.043	0.038
*1622 vs. 1925*	0.648	0.832	0.133	0.364	0.424	0.423
*1622 vs. 1925ss*	0.004	0.027	0.318	0.329	0.211	0.154
*1725 vs. 1925*	0.007	0.042	0.729	0.585	0.329	0.361
*1725 vs. 1925 ss*	0.564	0.666	0.496	0.566	0.623	0.644
19.25 vs. 19.25ss	0.015	0.039	0.250	0.921	0.663	0.583

* Friedman test was applied; †: Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used for pairwise comparisons; §: 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 = 0.002); h0: immediately after activation, SP: separators; ss: stainless steel.