Mechanical Analysis of Orthodontic Springs

Abstract

Abstract Quantitative determination of the forces and moments produced by orthodontic springs is important to the understanding of tooth movement, control of treatment, and spring design. In three dimensional space, the loading on a bracket has six components. These are three forces (Fx, Fy, Fz) and three moments (Mx, My, Mz), (Fig. 1). In Fig. 1, the X-Y plane is parallel to the sagittal plane, with the X-axis parallel to the horizontal. Reliable techniques must be developed to calculate and/or measure these loads.