# Chemical composition of titanium preformed orthodontic archwires - A preliminary report

Stéphane Genin, Patrice Berthod, Christophe Rapin, Pierre Steinmetz, Marie-Pierryle Filleul

► To cite this version:

Stéphane Genin, Patrice Berthod, Christophe Rapin, Pierre Steinmetz, Marie-Pierryle Filleul. Chemical composition of titanium preformed orthodontic archwires - A preliminary report. European Orthodontic Society congress, Jun 2005, Amsterdam, Netherlands. hal-04019849

HAL Id: hal-04019849

https://hal.science/hal-04019849

Submitted on 8 Mar 2023

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access
archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci-
entific research documents, whether they are pub-
lished or not. The documents may come from
teaching and research institutions in France or
abroad, or from public or private research centers.

L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est
destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents
scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non,
émanant des établissements d'enseignement et de
recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires
publics ou privés.

<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF TITANIUM PREFORMED ORTHODONTIC ARCHWIRES
- A PRELIMINARY REPORT.

S.GENIN*,*, P.BERTHOD**, C.RAPIN**, P.STEINMETZ**, MP.FILLEUL*,*

*Faculté de Chirurgie Dentaire, Nancy I

**Laboratoire de Chimie du Solide Minéral, UMR 7555

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>

**INTRODUCTION:** In 1979, Burstone and Goldberg introduced orthodontic wires made from the Titanium Molybdenum alloy. Since March 1999, their patent has run out and such wires are now freely available on the market from several suppliers.

**MATERIALS:** Orthodontic rectangular (.017 x .025 inch) preformed archwires were obtained from 9 major firms, namely :

* **Beta Titanium™ (American Orthodontics®)**

* **Rematitan® de Dentaurum®**

* **Resolve® de GAC®**

* **Betablue™ de Highland Metals®**

* **TMA® et TMA Low Friction® de Ormco®**

* **Beta Plus™ de Ortho Plus®**

* **Bendaloy™ de RMO®**

* **TiMolium™ de TP Orthodontics®**

* **Beta III Titanium™ de 3M Unitek®**

One wire of each brand was chosen at random to be tested.

**METHOD:** The chemical composition of the alloy making up each sample was established by means of electronic microscopic analysis with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS). This proved sufficient for 8 out of the 10 sample archwires put to test.
Additionally, Cameca SX 100 microprobe (Wavelenght Dispersive Spectrometer WDS) was used to complete the chemical analysis of the 2 remaining samples, where the presence of other metals had been found).

**RESULTS** (Except % Titanium)

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /></figure>

**PRELIMINARY FINDINGS:**

The metal contents of 8 brands of archwires presently available are closely related, with

approximately Titanium 80% / Molybdenum 11%.

Such alloys are comparable to the original metal-combination developped by Burstone and Goldberg in 1979 which contained

Titanium 79% / Molybdenum 11% / Zirconium 6% / Tin 4%

Betablue™ has less Molybdenum (approximately 4%).

TiMolium™ contains more Titanium (close to 90%) and no Molybdenum.

Metals such as Aluminium, Vanadium and Chrome, have also been found.

**CONCLUSION:** The metal composition of Titanium archwires currently available for orthodontic treatment may vary. Some appear to be quite different from the original B-Titanium alloy.

Further investigation is presently under way.