SBIR-STTR Award

The orthodontic forces applied to the dentition and the resistance the periodontics offers to these forces control the resulting tooth movement. The rationale of this research is to provide the orthodontist with the clinical instrumentation with which to measure the forces and couples produced by the appliances in the oral cavity. With these instruments, the relation between the applied force system and the resulting clinical tooth movement can be defined without the simplifying assumptions inherent in laboratory studies. Irrespective of the technique practiced, such instruments provide individual orthodontists with the ability to define treatment protocols and reactivation regimens, to fabricate specialized appliances for individual treatment, to introduce new products to their practice with greater confidence in their use, and to conduct studies which will add to the common knowledge base. An appliance system designed on a "force driven" concept will be constructed. This appliance system, by utilizing these newly developed instruments, will allow accurate control and variation of the boundary conditions at each attachment hence providing improved biomechanical control of tooth movement.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applications of the research:In the United States alone there are 9,000 orthodontists treating 1.5 million new cases each year. Since the force system the appliances produce is the common thread of all these techniques, and explains their successes and failures, one could conservatively estimate more than 50% of orthodontists will find this instrumentation to be of great use in their practice. It is anticipated that the appliance system and principles to be developed will be well received by the orthodontic community.National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR)

Mechanical force generated by the activated orthodontic appliance is transmitted to and through tooth crown attachments, through the tooth as a whole, and into the periodontium by means of root-ligament-bone contact. The presence of such force, in addition to that of normal physiologic activity, deforms the supporting tissues and catalyzes their remodeling (initiated at the cellular level), in time allowing tooth-displacement beyond that permitted by simply by deformation of the periodontal ligament. The "universal" orthodontic bracket, appropriately ligated, independent of clinical philosophy and technique, permits the delivery of force in all three planes of space.This force or force-system may be expressed in the form of six concentrated components (with respect to a local reference frame): three forces and three mechanical couples. Mechanical forces exist not individually, but in pairs;; two bodies, the"deliverer" and the "receiver," are required to generate force. Within the pair, the two forces are identical in magnitude, direction, ( and also location if the forces arise from physical contact), but are of opposite sense. With application to orthodontic mechanics, the "deliverer" is/are the activated element(s) of the appliance, and the "receive" is the crown-attachment or bracket. With reference to the application at hand, the instrument(s) to be designed, in use will (each) substitute for the orthodontic bracket.To date the orthodontist has had access to only simple instrumentation, and has been able to measure only forces, e.g. developed longitudinally in an "elastic," or transmitted faciolingually or occlusogingivally by a deflected orthodontic wire. The instrument(s) envisioned are to be capable of quantifying components associated with the local reference-framedescribed. Such instrumentation potentially give the practitioner the capability to quantify more fully and, thereby, to better control the force-systems delivered by the appliance. In addition, clearly, the instrument(s) could be uful in clinical and on-the-bench (experimental) research.Awardee's statement of the potential commercial applieations of the research:In the US alone, there are thirteen thousand orthodontists treating one and a half million new cases each year. Being that the force system the appliances produce is the common thread which ties all of the techniques together and explains their success (as well as their failures), one could anticipate this instrumentation will be well received by the orthodontic community.National Institute of Dental Research (NIDR)