Two-Four-Six-Braid Eight: Close Arch Mechanics

Ladies and gentlemen, the days of employing stainless steel archwires as your only mechanics is in the past. It was great when that was all you had. But the orthodontic world is now a Nitinol archwire world with a sprinkle of stainless steel. I normally treat the vast majority of my patients with a straight archwire series consisting of the following sequence.

First an .012 Nitinol wire is employed as a “welcome to orthodontics wire.” By using this Nitinol wire as a starting wire, we cause no discomfort while stirring up the periodontal ligaments and keeping the patient excited about orthodontics. Next, we move to a .014 Nitinol wire. It’s best to use this wire after the second molars are banded as the next wire in our sequence if the second molars have not erupted. Again, this is a low force wire and is great for rotating teeth. Then, we continue with the .018 Nitinol wire. By doing this, we begin to gain more arch expansion/alveloar remodeling after having completed all rotations. The .020 Stainless Steel is next and is it used to especially open deep bites by placing compensating curves in the wire. We also employ open coil spring to open or hold space for blocked out teeth or for teeth that are slowly erupting. The .016 x .022 Nitinol wire is than used to level and align. This wire engages the .022 slots and therefore the first and second molars as well.