Lingual orthodontics (Part 4): Economic lingual treatment (ECO-lingual therapy)

One key factor in the economic lingual treatment concept presented in this series of articles is the use of prefabricated, customized nickel titanium arch wires with superelasticity and temperature-dependent spring-back qualities (memory effect). Using a modern, e-modulus driven archwire sequence, a non-extraction case can be treated with 1 or 2 wires per arch, and an extraction case with 2 or 3 wires per arch. This article, the last in the Lingual Orthodontics series, uses clinical examples to show the various clinical potentials of these wires with temperature-dependent superelasticity, as not only part of but occasionally all the treatment is done with these prefabricated, customized nickel titanium wires.