About the Authors

Hui Xue

Contributed equally to this work with: Hui Xue, Jun Zheng

Affiliations Department of Orthodontics, School of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China, Department of Dentistry, Hegang People's Hospital, Hegang, China

Jun Zheng

Contributed equally to this work with: Hui Xue, Jun Zheng

Affiliation Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Stomatological Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

Ziping Cui

Affiliation Department of Digestive Diseases, Hegang People's Hospital, Hegang, China

Xiufeng Bai

Affiliation Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Stomatological Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

Gang Li

Affiliation Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Stomatological Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

Caidi Zhang

Affiliation Department of Orthodontics, Stomatological Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

Sanhu He

Affiliation Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Stomatological Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

Weihong Li

Affiliation Department of Orthodontics, Stomatological Hospital of Wenzhou Medical College, Wenzhou, China

Shayanne A. Lajud

Affiliation Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Yinzhong Duan

duanyz@fmmu.edu.cn (YD); zhouhongdean@126.com (HZ)

Affiliation Department of Orthodontics, School of Stomatology, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an, China

Hong Zhou

duanyz@fmmu.edu.cn (YD); zhouhongdean@126.com (HZ)

Affiliation Department of Orthodontics, Stomatological Hospital of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: HX JZ YD HZ. Performed the experiments: HX JZ ZC GL XB CZ SH. Analyzed the data: XB CZ WL. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: HX JZ ZC GL WL. Wrote the paper: HX JZ SL YD HZ.