RESUMO
Introduction: The focus of the presented study was to investigate the effect of buccal-lingual (B-L) orthodontic bracket slot dimension on third-order torque mechanics. Materials and methods: Three types of orthodontic brackets and two archwire sizes were considered. Ortho Classic H4 (0.026â³ B-L slot, passive), Ormco Damon Q (0.028â³ B-L slot, passive), and In-Ovation R (0.028â³ slot, active) brackets were tested using 0.017â³ × 0.025â³ and 0.019â³ × 0.025â³ beta-titanium archwires. An in vitro orthodontic torque simulator (OTS) was used to rotate archwires relative to a single bracket while recording forces and moments in three directions. For each bracket-archwire combination, a total of n = 47 samples were tested. Repeated measures analysis of variance between brackets was conducted for third-order torque values at 3° increments between 9° and 30° during loading and unloading for each archwire size. Results: Statistically significant differences between H4 and Q brackets were only found for 0.017â³ × 0.025â³ archwires during loading, and 0.019â³ × 0.025â³ archwires during unloading. Conversely, differences between H4 and R brackets were found for both archwires during loading and unloading phases. Finally, when using a 0.017â³ × 0.025â³ archwire the H4 brackets reached the 5 Nmm threshold before R and Q brackets; however, there was little difference found when using a 0.019â³ × 0.025â³ archwire. Conclusions: The concept of using a smaller B-L bracket slot dimension in orthodontic treatment showed it may theoretically allow for more options, primarily using smaller archwires to correct third-order rotational misalignments. However, it is suspected that bracket material limitations and added loading on the door currently prevent this from being clinically applicable.