Electropolishing of Orthodontic Bracket Produced by Investment Casting Process

Abstract

Malocclusion or improper teeth arrangement is the most common problem in the field of orthodontics. If the malocclusion is not corrected, it will promote more serious problems, such as bleeding gums, tooth decay, cavities, difficulty breathing and other problems. Currently, the most common technique used to cure the malocclusion is using treatment of orthodontic brackets. Normally, orthodontic brackets can be produced by machining, metal injection molding and investment casting processes. In the previous research, orthodontic brackets have been successfully produced using investment casting process. The investment casting is selected, since the technology was developed well in Indonesia which is shown by existing number of investment casting industries. However, surface roughness of the bracket produced by investment casting is still high, valued at 0.91 μm. On the other hand, surface roughness of the commercial orthodontic bracket is 0.53 μm. In this current work is focused on surface modification of investment casting brackets by using electropolishing. The best result shows that the surface roughness of cast brackets achieve up to 0.44 μm. It shows that opportunity to fabricate orthodontic brackets domestically is applicable.