Static and kinetic friction force and surface roughness of different archwirebracket sliding contacts

The aim of this study was to determine the static and kinetic friction forces of the contact bracket-archwire with different dental material compositions in order to select those materials with lower resistance to sliding. We carried out sliding friction tests by means of a universal testing machine following an experimental procedure as described in ASTM D1894 standard. We determined the static and kinetic friction forces under dry and lubricating conditions using an artificial saliva solution at 36.5ºC. The bracket-archwire pairs studied were: stainless steel-stainless steel; stainless steel-glass fiber composite; stainless steel-Nitinol 60; sapphire-stainless steel; sapphire-glass fiber composite; and sapphire-Nitinol 60. The best performance is obtained for Nitinol 60 archwire sliding against a stainless steel bracket, both under dry and lubricated conditions. These results are in agreement with the low surface roughness of Nitinol 60 with respect to the glass fiber composite archwire. The results described here contribute to establishing selection criteria for materials for dental archwire-brackets.