Do laypersons perceive aesthetic differences between coated and uncoated orthodontic archwires?

Abstract

Introduction: Aesthetic brackets are routinely combined with metallic wires in fixed orthodontic therapy, mainly due to the disadvantages of the clinical use of aesthetic archwires. The current situation needs to be explored in the literature by considering laypersons’ perceptions. Objective: The objective of this cross-sectional study was to evaluate laypersons’ aesthetic perceptions of metal archwires with and without aesthetic coating. Three age ranges and both sexes were evaluated. Methods: A volunteer using fixed aesthetic orthodontic appliance was photographed wearing the following archwires: stainless steel, nickel-titanium (NiTi), NiTi coated with epoxy resin and NiTi coated with rhodium. Using a 100-mm visual analog scale, 90 laypersons evaluated the photographs. Sex and age ranges (18-30, 31-45, over 46 years of age) were evaluated. The comparisons between the archwires and between age ranges were made using ANOVA and Tukey’s test. Genders were compared using Mann-Whitney test. Results: The results showed that the evaluators considered the archwire coated with epoxy resin to be the most aesthetic (60.64 ± 13.04) and the NiTi wire to be the least aesthetic (30.82 ± 7.79) (p< 0.05). Only the range of 31-45 years of age considered the NiTi archwires less aesthetic, when compared with the other age groups. For the other archwires, no statistically significant difference were found between the age groups. No differences between the sexes were detected. Conclusions: The results indicated that the aesthetic coated archwires represent an improvement in the visual aspect of ceramic brackets. The epoxy-coated metal wire was considered the most aesthetic option.

Attractiveness of different esthetic orthodontic wires

“…For being considered esthetic, this result was expected, compared to the conventional metallic wires. Pinzan-Vercelino et al 21 found in their study that the epoxy resin wire was the most attractive. However, in their study, the wires were evaluated only for 30 seconds each.…”

“…In order to reduce the interference in the evaluators perception, monocrystalline ceramic accessories and silicone esthetic ligatures were used, since these materials were the most esthetic of their categories. 8 , 21 Besides, a patient with a great occlusion and smile esthetics, good teeth alignment and leveling and normal overbite and overjet was selected for orthodontic appliance bonding, in order to not interfere in the evaluation of the wire esthetics.…”

“…Probably when compared, the white coating appeared less attractive, justifying the differences with the Pinzan-Vercelino’s study. 21 …”

“…Probably when compared, the white coating appeared less attractive, justifying the differences with the Pinzan-Vercelino's study. 21 The white coating of the epoxy resin appears to be more attractive than the Teflon yellowish coating and the conventional metallic wires. However, the epoxy resin wires, when in contact with the oral environment resemble to those of Teflon, and could undergo corrosion, drastic alterations in color, besides peeling in some parts, due to masticatory and friction forces, allowing the metal to be revealed, which causes discomfort to the patient and is unesthetic.…”

“… 12 , 18 , 19 Their advantages and disadvantages have already been described in numerous studies in the literature. 7 , 12 - 14 , 17 Recently, Pinzan-Vercelino et al 21 performed a cross-sectional study to evaluate laypersons’ esthetic perceptions of metal archwires with and without esthetic coating and found that the epoxy resin wire was the most esthetic. But no study compared the attractiveness of several types of esthetic wires evaluated by both laypeople and dentists.…”