[Changes of retention force of CEKA intraoral anchors caused by repeated removal]

A retainer should provide force capable of securing the position of the partial denture an still not damaging the periodontium of the abutment teeth. It's almost generally accepted that the retentional force should not be greater than 10N nor weaker than 5N. This study was designed to measure the forces required to disconnect parts of CEKA intracoronal anchors initially and repeatedly up to 50000 cycles. The results are compared with suggested values. It was found that the initial force exceeded 10N. After repeated removals retentional force decreased, but never under values of 5N.