Metal Mouth Message Board

Hi,

About an hour after I got a new wire, I took a sip of very hot
coffee and instantly felt the molars on my left side seem like
they pulled/moved. I know that the wire is activated by
body temperature...but will drinking very hot beverages
aid the movement of the teeth by activating the wire at to
a greater degree?

Hi.

An ortho assistant told me that the heat-activated alloy operates within a temperature range, with body temperature the ideal.

I have not researched this though - maybe a doc should clarify.

Cheers

Glen

Hey.

I got curious so I Googled "heat-activated" "archwire" which quickly led to this cool but lingo-rich report from 3M regarding one of the Nitinol archwires:

http://multimedia.mmm.com/mws/mediawebs ... e4_LooooN-

(Their graphs and analyses seem to start with the basic assumption that we are dealing with body temp or around 37 degrees Centigrade).

This is FAR more than I ever wanted to know about archwires!

Cheers

Glen