Evaluation of biofilm accumulation on and deactivation force of orthodontic Ni-Ti archwires before and after exposure to an oral medium: A prospective clinical study

Background. This in vitro study aimed to evaluate biofilm accumulation on and deactivation force of orthodontic nickel-titanium (NiTi) archwires before and after exposure to an oral medium. Methods. Four commercial brands of orthodontic NiTi 0.016” archwires were examined before and after exposure to the oral medium for 4 weeks. Six archwire segments, 30 mm in length, from each manufacturer were tested in a device with four self-ligating brackets, channel 0.022”, adapted to a universal test machine to evaluate the deactivation force between 0.5 and 3 mm of deflection. The presence of biofilm on the archwire surfaces was evaluated by scanning electron microscopy, before and after exposure to the oral medium. The Wilcoxon and kappa tests were applied to the biofilm scores, three-way ANOVA for repeated measures (Bonferroni post-test), and linear regression between biofilm and deactivation force. Results. The exposure to the oral medium promoted moderate to severe presence of debris on the archwire surfaces and caused a reduction in deactivation force for the Ormco and GAC brands, while maintaining them with adequate force levels. The MORELLI and ORTHOMETRIC archwires underwent no significant reduction in deactivation force; moreover, these maintained elevated levels of force after exposure to the oral medium. The Spearman test indicated a low correlation between biofilm accumulation and deflection force for the Morelli (R2=0.132 and P=0.683) and Orthometric (R2=0.308 and P=0.330) brands. On the other hand, the GAC (R=0.767 and P=0.004) and ORMCO (R=0.725 and P=0.008) brands exhibited statistically significant correlation between these variables. Conclusion. Exposure to the oral medium for one month might give rise to significant changes in the dissipation of forces of orthodontic NiTi archwires, resulting from biofilm accumulation.