Assessment of Friction and Surface Roughness of a Novel Orthodontic Wire FlexyBlueTitanium. (An in vitro comparative study)
Author(s): Ali Alsaffar* and Shahbaa A. Mohammed
Abstract
Introduction: Friction plays a role in reducing the efficiency of orthodontic tooth movement, so it is necessary to understand the effect of friction and the amount of force needed to overcome its impact on biological tissue response and archwireguided tooth movement. Aim: the purpose of this study is to compare between two different wires: NiTi, Blue NiTi and CuNiTi by measuring the sliding friction and surface roughness. Materials and Methods: specimens were divided into nine groups (six specimens each) the groups were classified according to the type of the wire and treatment condition (as received, thermocycling of 5000 cycle, distilled water aging for 1month). The groups were tested for sliding friction in dry condition. Surface roughness of five samples of each group was examined by means of atomic force microscope. The data were analyzed by ANOVA, Post Hock Tukey’s test for parametric tests, and Kruskal-Wallis, pairwise comparison test for non-parametric tests. Results: showed statistical significant difference among archwires in condition of as received and thermal-cycling (NiTi had generates higher sliding friction compared with BlueNiTi and CuNiTi) with non-significant difference among the wires in distilled water condition. For aging conditions, there was statistically significant difference among conditions in both NiTi and CuNiTi wires (higher frictional resistance generated after thermal aging), while there was non-significant difference among conditions in case of BlueNiTi wire. Conclusion: it is recommended to use BlueNiTi archwires during the first stage of orthodontic treatment as it has the lowest change in friction behavior after aging.