DIC analysis of mechanical response of tooth aligners under simulated swallowing acts

In this work, the mechanical and deformation behavior of clear Polyethylene Terephthalate-glycol (PET-g) aligners, under cyclic loading was investigated using a full-field optical technique: the Digital Image Correlation. In particular, the PET-g aligners thermoformed from 0.88 mm thick discs, were subjected to cyclic compression tests for 13000 load cycles from 0 to 50 N in the atmospheric environment (~25°C). This number of cycles was chosen because it simulates, on average, the intraoral load associated with the swallowing acts that an aligner is subjected to during the time of use of 1 week. At the same time, the results from the analysis of hysteresis loops obtained by the DIC technique were compared with those obtained by the testing machine. The mechanical response of clear aligners was evaluated in terms of maximum displacement, energy loss and relative stiffness along the load direction to seven different stages of the 13000 load cycles. A comparable trend was found between the measurements obtained by Digital Image Correlation analysis and the analysis of the hysteresis loops obtained from the cyclic compression tests. Furthermore, the morphological features of the PET-g aligner at the end of the tests were analyzed by optical microscopy (OM). The OM analyses showed that thesurface of PET-g aligner was affected by morphological variations such as high depressions and cracks

Sella turcica and craniofacial morphology in patients with palatally displaced canines: a retrospective study

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the sella and craniofacial morphological features in growing patients with palatally displaced canines compared to controls. Materials and methods: Twenty-two subjects with palatally displaced canines were retrospectively selected and compared to 22 controls matched for age and gender. Lateral cephalograms were collected and sagittal and vertical cephalometric variables were measured, together with sella interclinoid distance, sella depth, and sella diameter. The independent samples T-test or Mann-Whitney U-test were used to compare all the variables between the two groups. A Pearson correlation was computed for the craniofacial and sella variables that differed significantly (p < 0.05) between the groups. Results: Patients with palatally displaced canines showed a smaller interclinoid distance and a greater SNA angle than control subjects. The interclinoid distance and the SNA angle were negatively correlated (–0.52, p = 0.017) in the experimental group. Conclusions: Growing patients with palatally displaced canines had smaller sella interclinoid distances and a greater SNA angle than control subjects