Growing demand of invisible braces byesthetically conscious patients has led to remarkable inventions in materials for esthetic labial archwires. Archwires with excellent optical clarity and mechanical properties comparable to conventional archwires have been manufactured by almost all the leading companies of orthodontic products in the past two decades, but their clinical use is still limited...

Nickel-titanium (NiTi) shape-memory alloys (SMAs) have been used in the manufacture of orthodontic wires due to their shape memory properties, super-elasticity, high ductility, and resistance to corrosion. SMAs have greater strength and lower modulus of elasticity when compared with stainless steel alloys. The pseudoelastic behavior of NiTi wires means that on unloading they return to their ori...

The objective of this study was to evaluate the time-dependent viscoelastic properties of an aesthetic orthodontic archwire. The wire is based on a recently developed translucent polyphenylene thermoplastic, whose rigid molecular structure provides high strength. While the wire has good instantaneous mechanical properties, over time all polymers may relax so it is important to understand the po...

This study evaluated the effect of heat treatment on CrNi stainless steel orthodontic archwires. Half of forty archwires of each thickness - 0.014" (0.35 mm), 0.016" (0.40 mm), 0.018" (0.45 mm) and 0.020" (0.50 mm) (totalling 160 archwires) - were subjected to heat treatment while the remainder were not. All of the archwires had their individual thickness measured in the anterior and posterior ...

Guide wires are frequently used in various endourologic procedures to access the upper as well as lower urinary tract. Flexible guide wires have lesser complication rate of tissue injury as compared to stiff guide wires. Flexible guide wires are however more prone to bending and kinking due to their mechanical properties. We report an unusual complication of knotting of flexible guide wires dur...

The recovery stress of martensitic shape-memory alloy [SMA] wires can be used to confine concrete, and the confining effectiveness of the SMA wires was previously proved through experimental tests. However, the behavior of SMA wires under recovery stress has not been seriously investigated. Thus, this study conducted a series of tests of NiTiNb martensitic SMA wires under recovery stress with v...

BACKGROUND The purpose of the study is to assess the antiadherent and antibacterial properties of surface-modified stainless steel and NiTi orthodontic wires with silver against Lactobacillus acidophilus. METHODS This study was done on 80 specimens of stainless steel and NiTi orthodontic wires. The specimens were divided into eight test groups. Each group consisted of 10 specimens. Groups con...

Background: Orthodontics is a part of dentistry that includes preventive methods and correction of dental irregularities that need to be repositioned by functional and mechanical tools to provide an ideal occlusion and a beautiful face for patients. There are currently four metal arch wires used in orthodontic treatment: stainless steel alloy, cobalt-chromium alloy, nickel-titanium alloy, and b...

The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the force levels of aesthetic Ni-Ti wires to regular Ni-Ti wires of the same dimension and evaluate their mechanical properties. Aesthetic and regular maxillary superelastic Ni-Ti wires (0.016 × 0.022) from four different manufacturers (G&H Wire Company, TP Orthodontics, GAC International, and Ortho Organizers) were selected and grouped I-IV...