Rajaganesh A1, Basnayake S1
1. District General Hospital Negombo
2. Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children Colombo
Stainless steel Posted arch wires are a very useful adjunct to the clinical orthodontist’s armamentarium. . They may be utilized during the retraction and space closing phases in orthodontic treatment.. The pre-soldered posts provide support for attachment of elastics, springs and other auxiliaries. Valuable chair-side time is saved by eliminating the need to manually solder or crimp hooks or bend loops in the wire. These wires are supplied in various fixed inter-post distances for both maxillary and mandibular arches dependent on the inter-bracket distance for their placement.
Selecting the wire with the precise inter-post distance for each patient may prove tricky if a curved template is not available. Otherwise as the arch is curved a flexible ruler is necessary to make an accurate measurement of the inter-bracket distance of the patient. In the absence of a flexible ruler the clinician may have to guesstimate and try in many wires, which may result in contamination and the necessity for re-sterilization of the wire.
This simple template may save time and prevent wastage when selecting your posted wires in the future.
Firstly, on a blank paper trace out all the available posted wires in ascending order of inter-post desistance measurement (Fig 1). Make sure to mark the post as well for each of your tracings (Fig 2). Once laminated a template is now ready to use. (Fig 3)
When a patient is ready for a posted wire, mark the existing wire in the desired location before wire removal (Fig 4). Then remove the marked wire and match the markings with the template to select the precise wire with the necessary inter-post distance (Fig 5).
the appropriate wire may then be selected for the packet(Fig 6).
This is a simple method that can be done by your assistant.
