Continuing Education: Slop-py Work by Drs. Elizabeth R. Michalczyk, Noam Green and Alise Senderak

Calculating theoretical torque loss utilizing rectangular and square-shaped archwires

Short course description
This course describes a method to simply calculate theoretical “slop,” assuming that absolute archwire stiffness, perfect archwires and bracket slot geometry exist. It explores the relative slop between different archwire options and signifies the importance of forces in a clinical orthodontic setting.

Course objectives
Upon completion of this course, the participant should be able to understand the following:

• Why third-order movements involving torque are most effectively expressed using rectangular archwires.
• What type of movement is controlled by rectangular slots and accommodates rectangular archwires.
• The relative degrees of slop between different archwire dimensions within a given bracket system.
• Why an archwire with height that more closely approximates the bracket slot height corresponds to a lesser degree of slop.
• Why 0.022-inch bracket slot systems introduce more slop with the same dimension archwire and affect the range of archwires.
• The formula proposed in this course and how it provides a simple way to mathematically define the degree of theoretical torque loss, or slop.

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