Citrus

Orthodontic Wires

During orthodontic treatment teeth are moved by ligating a series of arch wires into small rectangular slots on the surface of brackets (above) that are glued to the enamel of teeth. These wires can be ligated by a steel tie or a tiny elastic rubber band. The idea is to use a variety of metal wires from flexible metals like nickel titanium and copper to firm metals like stainless steel, along with a variety of shapes from round to rectangular wires and a variety of sizes from .012mm-.016x.022mm wires that fit into specific slots and each propose a specific purpose. Nickle titanium wires have memory and come in a horseshoe shape, meaning that I could take the wire and tie it in a not and upon releasing it it would bounce back to its horseshoe form (above). This is used in the initial stage of "unraveling" the teeth. Once the wire is tied into the brackets (which are as uneven as the patients teeth as seen above) the heat of the patients mouth activates the memory of the wire and it begins to move back to its original horseshoe shape putting pressure on the teeth and taking them with it. Once this is complete we insert an intermediate wire that is also flexible but also rectangular. this adds the linear direction along with the torque caused by the angulation built into the bracket slots. This will level and align the teeth. Once this is complete we can insert finishing wires. These are rectangular and stainless steel. In these wires we can add bends because it does not have memory so the bends stay as they are and we can use this to manipulate individual teeth each in a unique manner to get the optimal outcome desired.