Frictional resistance evaluation in contemporary ligation systems: An Invitro study

Objectives: This study was to evaluate the frictional resistance produced by various contemporary ligation systems in comparison with passive self-ligation system Materials and methods: The study was done using 0.019 X0.025″ Stainless steel wire of 7cm length with 0.022" MBT pre adjusted edgewise maxillary 1st premolar brackets and 3 different types of ligation-0.009” stainless steel ligatures, Superslick ligatures, Slide ligaturescompared to Smart Clip 3 passive self-ligating brackets. The study was conducted in dry and wet conditions at 7 and 21 days intervals. A customized testing jig with bracket, wire and ligature assembly was fabricated and mounted parallel to the vertical framework of universal testing machine. The mechanical testing was done with a load cell of 10 N at a crosshead speed of 5mm/min. 10 samples for each group were tested. Inter and intra group comparison was done using t Test and analysis of variance Test (F Test) with SPSS version 22 software. Results: SmartClip 3 showed statistically significantly low staticand dynamic friction compared to others in dry and wet condition at 7 days interval. There exists a significant difference in friction between the super slick and slide ligature in the 21 days wet condition. Superslick ligature showed rapid decrease in friction in wet condition compared to dry condition. However, SmartClip showed least dynamic friction in 21 days in wet condition. Conclusion: This study concluded that SmartClip self-ligating brackets produced least friction both in dry and wet condition. Frictional resistance reduced considerably when placed in wet condition for 21 days compared to that in dry condition in all the evaluated samples. Thus proving that self-ligating appliance are very effective in enhancing tooth movement during all stages of treatment and thus reducing treatment time