BRAKING MECHANICS

Dynamol.S
1yr MDS
 INTRODUCTION

 It reverses the anchorage site from the posterior to the anterior

segment by permitting only the bodily movement of the
anterior teeth instead of tipping.

 Begg technique-stage II treatment

 If any excess extraction space remain at the end of stage I.

 When space is to be closed mainly by protraction of posterior-
without further retraction of the anteriors-it can be done by
using efficient braking mechanics.

 Conversion of tipping to bodily movement is either in a mesio-

distal direction for canines & labio-lingual direction for the
incisors.
 One ore more forms of brakes are applied depending on the
braking needs.

 Commonly used brakes are;

1. Braking springs
2. Angulated T pins
3. Combination wires
4. Torquing auxiliaries
Braking springs
 These are passive uprighting springs made in 0.018 wire.

 Parts of the uprighting spring

 1. Coil.
 2. Stem - The portion inserted in the lock pin slot.
 3. Arm- Contains a hook which is attached to the arch wire
 Used on bicuspids and cuspids has an angle between the stem
and the arch wire 1800 before activation.

 The length of the arm is usually 3–4mm to avoid

impingement on the crowns, brackets, or hooked ends of other
auxiliaries

 The greater the angulation between the stem and the arm, the
greater the uprighting force. That's the reason why the
angulation is kept less for a passive spring and greater for an
active spring.
 The arm and stem are kept at an angle of 120 0 to kept as
passive.

 But still it should exert enough force to hold the cuspid

upright against the tractive force of the stronger horizontal
elastics.

 The helix with retentive arm should face the tooth surface.The
base arch wire is ligated, otherwise the action of uprighting
spring will extrude the tooth.
 The length of hook is made greater than the diameter of the
helix to keep the arm of the spring parallel to the arch wire in
the vertical plane.To avoid a rotating force on the tooth, the arm
of the spring is offset buccally to make it parallel to the arch
wire in the horizontal plane.

 The height of the hook should equal the diameter of the coil. If
the height is less than the coil diameter, the uprighting force
will be more and vice versa.
 The degree of activation of the uprighting springs depends on:
1. The size of wire
2. Diameter of helix
3. Number of turns in the helix
4. Length of the arm of the spring
5. The size of the root being uprighted.
Angulated T Pins
 These pins maintains the tipping already brought
about & prevent further tipping.

 Special lock pins with mesiodistally

broad heads.

 When the wide underside of the head is drawn tightly against

the arch wire, the tooth is no longer free to tip misodistally
under a light force.It then move bodily with a stonger force.
 By selective use of T pins it is possibly to reinforce anchorage in
the buccal segment or maintain inclination achieved with spring
pins.

 If there is clearance between the brackets and the intermaxillary

hook,Tpins can be placed on canines to prevent further free
distal crown tipping while putting on the brakes in stage II.

 T pins are available with the control face at three different

angulations to the long axis of the tail.
 Upper right cuspid
& lateral incisor,
Upper left cuspid lower left cuspid
&lateral incisors & lateral incisor in
in all cases & all cases ,& upper
Central incisors upper right left second
in all cases & second bicuspid bicupid & lower
all bicuspids in & lower left right second
non extraction second bicuspid bicuspid in four
cases in four first first bicuspid
bicupid extraction cases
extraction cases
Combination Wires

 These are made either of stainless steel or alpha titanium alloy.

 The anterior segment is 0.022 x 0.018 (ribbon made) & posterior

segment is in 0.018 round cross section.

 Depending on protraction needs,wire is shaped such that anterior

segment fits in bracket passively or with a small lingual root
torque.
 Thus anterior segment remains stationary, thus preventing the
flattening of profile.

 Alpha titanium is easier to engage in anterior bracket slot.It

results in distortion under the occlusal forces in the posterior
areas,especially in the lower arch.SS combination wire is
preferred.

 Combination wires are expensive

Torquing Auxiliaries
 A two spur or four spur auxiliary.
 MAA design in 0.010 or 0.011 can be used
Two & Four Spur Auxiliary

 The simplest and the most commonly used torquing auxiliary

is the four spur torquing auxiliary.

 They are usually made out of .016 SS arch wire. The spurs
are made in such a manner that they angulate towards the
midline (center of the tooth) to avoid any untoward rotational
effects on the tooth.

 For breaking mechanism adjust the auxiliary in an angle so

that spur loops with the plane of occlusion will be
approximately 20 – 400 depending on the degree of lingual
inclination of incisor.
 Torque loops are made as long as possible because the longer
loop has the technical advantage relative to the distribution
and dissipation of the reactive forces.

 Make a curve in the arm of the torque auxiliaries in the

vertical plane. This is because when inserted the torque loops
which were formed at 80 to 900 from vertical will rotate into
vertical position and the arms will rotate proportionately to
horizontal positions. This horizontal plane curvature will
permit the auxiliary to be hooked on the base wire distal to the
cuspid without touching it.
 The passive shape of a four spur Torquing auxiliary should
approximate that of a hexagon / octagon . The torque loops are
customarily made 80 degrees from the vertical (10 degrees from
the horizontal).

Octagon shape of the auxiliary Activating the Four spur Auxiliary

 When only central incisors require the torque -auxiliary with
two spurs are used.
 Made in 0.014-0.016 wire.
 How the Torquing auxiliary works?
 The vertical plane in which the torquing auxiliary orients,
when fitted on the incisors is changed to the horizontal plane
of the archwire when fully tied to it.

 The auxiliary is bent into a small circle, with spurs in a nearly

horizontal position.

 When the torquing auxiliary is opened to the larger arch of

anterior portion of the archwire, it rolls inwards so tips of
spurs press in a lingual direction.
 Another method is to place slight "V" bends midway between
the spurs.
 The final modification in the Torquing auxiliary is the bending
of the "cuspid-curve" in the distal arms.

 In the passive state, this curvature will cause the arms to

appear to drop below the level of the main arch wire; however,
when the Torquing auxiliary is applied, these distal arms will
be rotated by the spurs striking the labial surfaces of the
anterior teeth. This curve will then follow that of the thicker
main arch wire below.
 MAA (Mollenhauer Aligning Auxiliary )

 The MAA attempts root control from the very beginning without
significantly affecting the anchorage and over bite correction.
This is done by using a combination of stiff base arch wire made
from 0.018″ premium plus and ultra light root moving force of
MAA from 0.009″ supreme grade wire.

 Even though this auxiliary was developed for ribbon arch

brackets, it could be adapted with good effect to bodily align
lingually placed lateral incisors in preadjusted edgewise
appliance therapy also.
 Requirements for the use MAA:
• It must generate very light root moving forces

 When reciprocal torque is required on adjacent teeth the adjacent

rectangles must not diverge by more than 450.

 The auxiliary must be able to resist deformation and must be

made in highly resilient wire.
 The base wire should be able to resist the vertical and transverse
reactive force from MAA.

 MAA is always engaged 1st and the main wire is engaged. The
rectangles for the lingual root torque lift away from the tooth
surfaces which are held down with the help of pins, thus
indirectly transmitting the torquing action through the pins to the
brackets on to the teeth.
 Advantages:

 Efficiency in intrusion and simultaneous retraction of the

anterior teeth

 Efficiency in rapid bodily alignment of anterior teeth using

gentle forces

 Reciprocability of torquing forces on the in standing laterals or

palatally placed canines
 Stable results
 Short 3rd stage because of the early root control
Applications of MAA:

 Mainly used for bodily alignment of crowded teeth. The

looped arch wire like effect combined with lingual and or
labial root torque (expansion + derotation + vertical leveling)
 By bending more positive torque into the MAA it can be
used after the stage I as a breaking mechanism
 Applying labial root torque on the lower incisors in growing
brachyfacial cases for preventing their roots from lingualizing
will help to attain better profile control.
 It can also be used for controlling the mesio distal root
positions from beginning and also for labial root torque on the
upper incisors in class III cases.
 Action on the upper incisors:
 MAA generates a very light couple on each tooth. Depending
on the ratio of magnitude of combined moments to magnitude
of the class II elastic force, controlled tipping or bodily
retraction of upper incisors can take place.

 During the 2nd stage of Begg treatment magnitude of the

moment from intrusive force reduces because the anchor bends
are reduced in this stage and hence the MAA supplements the
moment so as to obtain a satisfactory moment to force ratio for
controlled tipping. So this way it prevents undesirable labial
tipping of incisor root and shortens 3rd stage
 Action on the lower incisors:

 During the first stage, the lower incisors experience only a

moment from the intrusive force, which tends to flare the
crown and lingualize the root.
 This can be prevented by using a MAA with labial root torque
that will cancel the other moment.
 In stage 2, labial root tipping due to class1 elastics can be
countered by using MAA with lingual root torque.
 It can also be used for breaking mechanics, when needed,
with more + ve torque built into it.
 Tip Edge Mechanics
 If a quadrant to be braked- a Side Winder auxiliary spring
can be used ,usually to canine & first premolar or even to
both.

 The arm of each spring when used as a brake,should point

mesially.

 Spring will significantly increase anterior anchorage,hence

resistence to retraction & favours protraction of the posterior
teeth into the space remaining.
 Activation of spring should not exceed 450 for braking
purpose.

 Braking is frequently used bilaterally.

 More commonly in lower arch in class II cases & upper in

classIII cases.

 Brakes can be applied or removed at any treatment

visit,according to the progress of the case.
Side Winder Spring

 It generates mesio-distal root movement & in conjuction with

rectangular archwires,produces torque correction as well.
 Made in 0.014 tensile S.S
 Original versions were retained in the vertical slot by
bending the protruding gingival tails 900which made them
difficult to remove.

 Significant improvement have come with – Invisible Side

Winder-advantage-

1.It is retained in position by the elastomeric

module,in addition to its own spring pressure.
2.Because of bulky hook has been eliminated ,the
spring had a wide range of activation than was previously
 It comes in clockwise and conter-clockwise formats –the one
with mirror image of other.

 Selection of the correct spring for each tooth is according to

the direction of second order correction required , as seen
from labial.

 Upper right canine requiring distal root correction will need

a counter-clockwise spring,while uprighting lower right
canine root distally will require a clockwise spring.
 It should always be inserted from the occlusal and never
gingivally.
T loop
 The T-loop as designed by Burstone in Segmented Arch
Technique.

 T-loops were developed by applying engineering principles

to increase M/F ratios and optimize their design.

 The vertical height of the loop directly influences the M/F

ratio. As the height increases,a greater M/F ratio is obtained
 The posterior teeth to move forward,the first of these involves
the placement of differential residual moments in the alpha
and beta positions.

 0.017” x 0.025” TMA T-spring

 Fig. 20 shows the passive shape of a 0.017 by 0.025 inch
attraction spring.The loop has been posteriorly positioned (one
third of the interbracket distance from the molar tube) and the
angulation bends are increasingly larger as one approaches the
alpha position.
 This spring is designed to encourage posterior protraction by
utilizing the following principles:

(1) the loop is placed off center; this

produces a more constant center of rotation in the beta
position. By contrast, in the alpha position, the moment-to-
force ratio rapidly increases so that if these teeth move at all,
they will tend to move forward rather than posteriorly.
(2) The force is kept under 300 Gm. to
minimize anterior retraction or root movement.
 The second strategy that can be used for displacing posterior
segments forward uses a symmetrically placed attraction
spring with the use of either Class II or ClassIII elastics.

 By using intermaxillary elastics during space closure, one

can minimize some of the side effects that would be evident
if the same elastics were used after all space is closed, and
the entire arch must be displaced.
 Other methods to producing a differential force system are
possible, either by altering the alpha and beta moments through
angulation in the attraction springs or by increasing or
decreasing the force of the intermaxillary elastics.

 In comparing the two strategies for posterior protraction,with

and without intermaxillary elastics, the choice depends upon
the treatment objectives. By placinga loop off center, one can
produce a differential moment-to-force ratio; however, this is
produced at the expense of vertical extrusive forces in the
anterior segment.
 If one contemplates intruding or has intruded the anterior
teeth, this method is not indicated.

 The use of intermaxillary elastics may alter the plane of

occlusion, and particularly Class II elastics may undesirably
steepen a plane of occlusion, erupting incisors in a Class II
patient.

 This undesirable side effect can be minimized or eliminated

by the use of a headgear to the upper arch which would
produce a moment with respect to the center of resistance that
flattens the plane of occlusion.
MBT Technique

 Space closure in minimum anchorage cases – Burninig

Anchorage.

 Mild crowding or protrusion,where extraction of premolars is

needed.

 Second premolars are chosen for extraction.

 Remaining spaces are closed by mesial movement of molars.

 Light class II elastics(100gm),worn just at night ,can cause
the mesial movement of lower molars during sliding
mechanics.

 Torque of +170 for upper central incisors and +100 for

lateral incisors helps in maintaining the A/P position of the
upper labial segment,against the 10-12 hrs classII elastic
force.
 CONCLUSION

 When extraction space is to be closed by protraction of

posteriors without retraction of anteriors, it can be achieved
by using efficient braking mechanics auxiliaries.
 REFERENCES
 Fletcher GGT. The Begg Appliance and Technique.

 Jayede V P. Refined Begg For Modern Times.

 Begg PR,Kesling PC. Begg Orthodontic Theory and Technique.

 Kumar V. The Beggs Uprighting Spring – Revisited.J Orthodont

Sci 2015;4:30-32.

 Richard Parkhouse.Tip Edge Orthodontics.

 Burstone C.J. The Segmented Arch Approach to Space
Closure.Amj.Orthod 1982;82;361-378
 McLaughlin,Bennet,Trevesi.Systemised Orthodontic
Treatment Mechanics.