Objectives: Good oral hygiene measures are important for successful orthodontic treatment. They involve various types of mouthwashes which have been reported to cause alteration of mechanical properties of archwires. This study aimed to evaluate the effects of a new kind of chlorine-dioxide-containing mouthwash on the mechanical properties and surface morphology of stainless steel orthodontic archwires against the already prevalent chlorhexidine mouthwash in the market.
Method: Group A - Chlorhexidine mouthwash 0.2% (study), Group B - Chlorine Dioxide mouthwash (study), and Group C - Artificial Saliva (control). 42 specimens of 5 cm long 19x25 inch SS archwires were immersed in each group equally. Post immersion, the frictional force was analyzed in the universal testing machine for each group using custom-made acrylic jigs for 10 specimens. The remaining 4 specimens from each group were sent for surface morphology evaluation using an atomic force microscope.
Results: Friction resistance evaluation for the archwires revealed a mean friction of 0.011 ± 0.0056 in Group A, 0.015 ± 0.0052 in Group B, and 0.010 ± 0.0067 in Group C. Results suggested that the static friction of Group C (control group) was found to be the least when compared with the experimental groups, although not producing statistically significant values. Surface roughness of archwires compared at a 10μm range revealed a mean roughness of 19.38 ± 0.82 in Group A, 25.39 ± 7.01 in Group B, and 16.65 ± 3.07 in Group C which shows there wasn't any statistically significant difference in the mean roughness midst the three sets.
Conclusion: Chlorine dioxide and Chlorhexidine mouthwashes caused an increase in the frictional resistance of the archwires when compared to the control group. When measured at a range of 10μm the mean surface roughness did not differ across the control and the experimental groups.
Keywords: Archwires; Frictional resistance; In-Vitro study; Mouthwash; Orthodontics; Surface characteristics.
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