High-cycle fatigue behavior of beta-titanium orthodontic wires

This study investigated high-cycle fatigue behavior in three β-Ti wires (TMA, Resolve, Gummetal). Fatigue was evaluated using a static three-point bending test and a high-cycle fatigue test with a three-point bending mode. The surfaces of fractured wires were observed with scanning electron microscopy, and the post-fatigue crystal structures were determined by micro-X-ray diffraction. The Gummetal wire exhibited the lowest elastic modulus, bending strength and fatigue limit, and exhibited the highest resilience of the three types of wire studied. However, no difference in the number of cycles to failure was observed among the three types of wire. The fatigue crack propagation and rapid propagation regions of all wires contained single-phase β-Ti. The elastic modulus and bending strength influenced the fatigue limit, although these properties did not affect the number of cycles to fracture. The three types of β-Ti wires exhibited similar risks of wire fracture.