Analysis of elemental composition of a heat activated, multi-force, nickel titanium othodontic archwire

The heat activated, multi-force, nickel-titanium archwire have three distinct force regions. This archwire places the correct force to the appropriate region (anterior, bicuspid and posterior) of the arch to quickly torque, level and align, without sacrificing patient comfort. In this work, analysis of such archwire (cross section 0.41 x 0.56 mm.) with variable longitudinal elasticity is done. The elemental composition is obtained by different wire's regions with 5 mm separation by Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) and two other independent methods such as X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD) and Energy Dispersive X-ray method (EDX). The large area of application of LIBS is due to its ability to perform microprobe elemental analysis of wide variety of samples with no preliminary sample preparation. Pulsed Nd:YAG laser (lambda 1,064 mu m, pulse duration 8 ns) is focused on the sample surface, causing ablation and formation of laser-induced plasma plume. Collecting and processing the plasma emission gives us information of the sample elemental composition. The obtained results of unused wire provide useful knowledge needs for further investigations on the wire changes during the treatment.