2.1. Ethics approval and consent to participate
This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the Declaration of Helsinki (1964) and its subsequent amendments. Moreover, this study adhered to the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials guidelines (CONSORT) and was approved by the Ethics Committee at the School of Dentistry, Aichi Gakuin University (Approval No. 637). Furthermore, written informed consent was obtained from all patients participating in the trial, and before patient enrollment, the trial was registered as a clinical trial at UMIN-CTR (Registration No. UMIN000045524, Date of first registration: 21/09/2021). The first patient was recruited and registered on September 27