## 3 Results
### Pain Analysis  
When analyzing the mean pain scores per month, statistically significant differences were observed between the two study groups for most months; month 8 was the exception, where no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups (Table 2). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multicolumn{3}{c}{**Variables**} & \multicolumn{5}{c}{**Groups**} \\ \hline  & & & **\
\begin{tabular}{c} **Brackets (BG)** \\ **(\(n=70\))** \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Invisalign** \\ **(G) **(\(n=70\))** \\ \end{tabular} & \(p\) & **Total (\(n=140\))** \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Age 1**} & **Mean** & 26.97 & 31.74 & 0.004 ** & 29.36 \\ \cline{2-6}  & **SD** & 7.23 & 11.39 & & 9.80 \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Sex 2**} & **Men** & N & 35 & 33 & 0.735 & 68 \\ \cline{2-6}  & **Men** & \% & 50 & 47.10 & & 48.60 \\ \cline{2-6}  & **Women** & N & 35 & 37 & & 72 \\ \cline{2-6}  & **\%** & 50 & 52.9 & & 51.40 \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{**Osteodental discrepancy 3**} & **Superior** & Mean & \(-\)3.38 & \(-\)3.30 & 0.797 & \(-\)3.34 \\ \cline{2-6}  & **SD** & 1.31 & 2.26 & & 1.86 \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-6}  & **Interior** & Mean & \(-\)3.47 & \(-\)3.38 & 0.708 & \(-\)3.42 \\ \cline{1-1} \cline{2-6}  & **SD** & 1.14 & 1.85 & & 1.54 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} SD: standard deviation. 1: Student’s \(t\)-test. 2: [PERSON]’s \(\chi 2\) test. 3: Student’s \(t\)-test. ** Statistically significant at \(p<\) 0.01.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Demographic characteristics of the participants (\(n=140\)). The highest pain scores were described during the first month of treatment, and during the second month, the pain level decreased considerably. When analyzing the mean pain scores on the VAS during the 12-month follow-up period, the BG patients described the highest level of pain during the first month post-treatment compared to the IG patients (BG: 2.175 \(\pm\) 1.984; IG: 1.976 \(\pm\) 2.295). However, the IG patients described the highest levels of pain (\(p\) < 0.05) for each month thereafter compared to the BG patients who reported decreasing pain scores. This trend of decreasing pain scores for the BG group was interrupted during the eighth month, where their pain scores increased briefly. This was attributed to the change in the orthodontic arch that occurred in that month (Figure 1). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Month**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Conventional Brackets (BG)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Invisalign (IG) (\(\textit{nt}\) = 70)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Invisalign (IG) (\(\textit{nt}\) = 70)**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**} \\ \cline{2-2} \cline{5-6}  & **Mean** & **SD** & **Mean** & **SD** & \(\textit{p}\) \\ \hline
**1 * & 2.175 & 1.984 & 1.976 & 2.295 & 0.047 \\ \hline
**2 ** & 0.869 & 1.159 & 1.288 & 1.835 & 0.000 \\ \hline
**3 ** & 0.642 & 1.009 & 1.197 & 1.904 & 0.000 \\ \hline
**4 ** & 0.607 & 1.004 & 0.998 & 1.675 & 0.001 \\ \hline
**5 ** & 0.405 & 0.792 & 0.884 & 1.483 & 0.000 \\ \hline
**6 ** & 0.430 & 0.852 & 0.926 & 1.510 & 0.000 \\ \hline
**7 ** & 0.331 & 0.731 & 0.791 & 1.442 & 0.000 \\ \hline
**8 & 0.573 & 0.962 & 0.691 & 1.369 & 0.291 \\ \hline
**9 * & 0.386 & 0.807 & 0.627 & 1.318 & 0.038 \\ \hline
**10 ** & 0.380 & 0.761 & 0.740 & 1.510 & 0.002 \\ \hline
**11 * & 0.269 & 0.657 & 0.525 & 1.246 & 0.028 \\ \hline
**12 ** & 0.202 & 0.580 & 0.452 & 1.145 & 0.031 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular} SD: standard deviation. Comparisons between groups applying the Student* \(\textit{t}\)-test. * Statistically significant at \(p\) < 0.05. ** Statistically significant at \(p\) < 0.01.  
\end{table} 
Table 2: Comparison of pain between both treatment groups during the 12-month follow-up. Figure 1: Comparison of the mean pain scores between both treatment groups during the 12-month follow-up period. During the first month of treatment (Table 3), we observed that there were statistically significant differences between the two study groups at 4 h (T1) (\(p\) < 0.01), at 3 days (T5) (\(p\) < 0.01), and at 4 days (T6) (\(p\) < 0.01).