Forces released during alignment with a preadjusted appliances with SPEED supercable wire and different types of elastomeric ligatures

Abstract

Introduction: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate a new combination of wire and ligature to reduce friction further by combining slide ligatures and supercable wires. Materials and Methods: The testing model consisted of five stainless steel 0.022 inch preadjusted brackets for second premolar, first premolar, canine, lateral incisor, and central incisor. The canine bracket was welded to a sliding bar that allowed different vertical positions. The forces generated by five sizes of wires superelastic nickel-titanium (SE Ni-Ti) (Unitek Nitinol Super-Elastic Archwire) of diameter 0.012, 0.014, 0.016, 0.018, and 0.020 inch and three sizes of SPEED supercable wires (0.016, 0.018, and 0.022 inch) with the two types of elastomeric ligatures; conventional elastomeric ligatures (CELs) (Unitek, silver mini modules, with inside diameter of 1.3 mm and thickness of 0.9 mm) and nonconventional elastomeric ligatures (NCELs) (Slide, Leone Orthodontic Products, Sesto Fiorentino, Firenze, Italy) at different amounts of upward canine misalignment (CM) (1.5, 3, 4.5, and 6 mm) were recorded. Results and Conclusions: Significant differences between CEL and NCEL were found for all tested variables ( P - 0.01) a noticeable amount of force was generated with the NCEL at all four canine positions with all three wire sizes (from about 50 to about 150 g). With 4.5 mm of CM or more, the average amount of released force with the CEL was approximately zero.