Introduction: Preformed nickel-titanium archwires have become an almost universal standard for archwire selection in clinical practice. However, previous studies have found that that the intercanine and intermolar widths may be altered with the use of these wires. The patient’s original arch form should not be changed. To our knowledge, previous studies have not yet assessed the intercanine and intermolar widths of preformed archwires when categorized into ovoid, tapered, and square arch forms. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the inter-arch dimensions of commercially available preformed nickel-titanium archwires relative to normal occlusion dental arches and when compared to archwires categorized into ovoid, tapered, and square arch forms. Methods: A total of 45 class I normal occlusion mandibular dental casts, 18 archwires, and tapered, square, and ovoid arch form templates were scanned. Casts were categorized into ovoid, tapered and square arch forms via best-fit method. Descriptive statistics of the intercanine and intermolar widths of all archwires and dental casts were assessed. We conducted linear-contrasts using robust-standard errors with a Bonferroni-Holm adjustment to measure the differences in inter-arch dimensions between pretreatment casts and preformed archwires by matching and differing arch forms. Concordance reliability and or intra-class correlation will be used to look for consistency between the measurements. Results: The intercanine and intermolar widths of preformed archwires (31.15 mm, SD 2.37 mm; M = 53.43, SD = 4.30 mm) were significantly larger than pretreatment casts (M = 26.11 mm, SD = 2.33 mm; M = 44.22 mm, SD = 2.98 mm) [SE = 0.65, p
| Date of Award | Jan 1 2018 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Abraham Lifshitz (Supervisor) |
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