A clinical comparison of the effectiveness of two types of orthodontic aligning archwire materials: a multicentre randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Summary Objectives To compare the heat-activated nickel titanium (HANT) with superelastic nickel-titanium (SENT) archwires in terms of their effectiveness of aligning teeth, possibility of inducing root resorption, and perception of pain. Subjects and methods Orthodontic patients aged 12 years or over with mandibular anterior crowding of 3–6 mm, who required treatment without extractions were randomly allocated (a simple non-stratified randomization) to the HANT and SENT archwires groups with a 1:1 allocation ratio. The archwire sequence in both groups was 0.014-inch and 0.016-inch, respectively. Each archwire was placed for 4 weeks. The outcome measures included the amount of crowding assessed blindly using Little’s irregularity index (LII), apical root resorption, and pain perception. The effectiveness of alignment was tested using 2 × 2 mixed factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) model, while root resorption and pain perception were tested by the Mann–Whitney U-test and Wilcoxon signed-rank test (P < 0.05). Results Thirty-four patients were randomized and recruited from four centres, of those 31 were analysed (15 participants for the HANT and 16 for the SENT groups) with an overall mean age of 19.13 ± 5.73 years. The total reduction in the LII was 2.69 mm and 2.74 mm for the HANT and SENT groups, respectively. This did not reach the level of statistical (P = 0.809) or clinical significance. Similarly, root resorption and pain perception showed non-significant difference between groups. However, there was a slight increase in root resorption with the SENT group. Limitations A long-term evaluation of root resorption is required. Conclusions Both HANT and SENT archwires were equally effective in the aligning stage of orthodontic treatment. Root resorption with SENT wires should be monitored throughout treatment. Registration The trial was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov on 18 September 2019, registration number: NCT04090931.

Tooth alignment and pain experience with A-NiTi versus Cu-NiTi: a randomized clinical trial

“…The current study showed 2.56 mm and 2.87 mm reduction in the irregularity index in the A-NiTi and Cu-NiTi groups, respectively. Nabbat and Yassir [ 16 ] in a study with a relatively similar methodology to ours reported 2.69 mm and 2.74 mm reduction in the irregularity index in use of HANT and SENT archwires, respectively, which were close to the values reported in our study.…”

“…Since there was no significant difference between the two groups in the number of taken analgesics, similarity of the pain parameters in the two groups can be attributed to the equality of the two archwires regarding pain generation, and ensures absence of significant effect of analgesic intake as a confounder on the results. No significant difference in the level of pain experienced by patients in the two groups of archwires was in agreement with the findings of Nabbat and Yassir [ 16 ] comparing HANT and SENT, Mahmoudzadeh et al [ 12 ] comparing A-NiTi and HANT, Abdelrahman et al [ 8 ] comparing SENT, conventional NiTi, and thermos-elastic NiTi, and Sandhu and Sandhu [ 25 ] comparing SENT and multi-stranded stainless steel archwires. Unlike our study, Cioffi et al [ 26 ] revealed that the level of pain at 2, 3 and 4 days following the installation of HANT archwire was significantly lower than that in use of SENT archwire.…”

“…Also, Atik et al [ 6 ] compared Tanzo Cu-NiTi and NT3 super-elastic NiTi (SENT) archwires and found no significant difference between them in correction of crowding of the maxillary teeth. Similarly, Nabbat and Yassir [ 16 ] reported equal efficacy of heat-activated NiTi (HANT) archwire and SENT archwire for alignment of the teeth. Sebastian et al [ 17 ] reported that coaxial tubular and single-stranded SENT archwires were equally effective for correction of crowding of the anterior site of the lower dental arch.…”

Alignment efficiency and three-dimensional assessment of root resorption after alignment with conventional and copper-nickel-titanium archwires: A randomized controlled trial

“… 16 , 21 A recent randomized control trial, corroborating the present study, also did not find any significant difference in EARR in mandibular incisors while comparing superelastic NiTi and heat-activated NiTi archwires. 29 In a study by Neves et al, 39 the incidence of EARR was reported to be higher in patients treated with premolar extraction, although the results were based on two-dimensional periapical radiographs and involved only maxillary incisors.…”

“…Displacement of contact point as described in the index was measured with the help of a digital caliper with a sharpened fine edge to the nearest 0.01 mm (Standard Digital Caliper Series: EC16) on the study models. 19 , 29 , 30 Alignment was considered complete when LII was near zero and 0.019×0.025-in stainless-steel working archwire was passive in the bracket slots (T5).…”