The great variety of commercial brands of orthodontic wires available on the market, stimulated by the so called superior wires (nickel titanium with shape memory effect and superelastic nickel titanium), makes the professional choice for a suitable and less expensive material difficult. The in vitro study of the mechanical properties of the orthodontic wires acts as an auxiliary tool for the professional. In this paper, a comparative study of mechanical properties was made, using stress strain tests for 4 types of orthodontic wires (conventional stainless steel, multistranded steel, superelastic nickel titanium and thermoactivated nickel titanium) separated into 5 groups. A series of 6 tests were tested for each group of wires. Initially, each group was tested 3 times until the wires broke. Furthermore, 3 more tests for each group were performed, stretching the wires under standardized activation loads, for a reliable comparison of their mechanical properties,
during loading and unloading. t tests were applied to check differences among the groups. In vitro, the results suggest that regarding the mechanical properties supposedly desirable for physiological teeth movement, such as resilience, elasticity modulus, strength liberated during unloading, and the way that strength is liberated, thermoactivated nickel titanium wires, acri-ng under mouth temperature, seems to be a good choice, followed by superelastic nickel titanium, multistranded stainless steel, and conventional stainless steel. Superelasticity was demonstrated for superelastic nickel titanium wires. When at 37´C, thermoactivated nickel titanium wires showed shape memory effect, showing that temperature is important for enhancing the mechanical properties.
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