Novel desktop robotic system for orthodontic archwire bending: an accuracy and efficiency comparison with manual...

To determine whether the bending accuracy and operational efficiency of a newly-developed desktop robotic archwire-bending system outperform manual bending performed by an experienced orthodontist.

A customized lingual orthodontic archwire with 9 bending nodes and two linear dimensional parameters (width and height) was set as the target specimen. Comparative tests were conducted using 0.5 mm round stainless steel archwires. Specimens were divided into robot and manual groups, with 12 replicates tested for each group. The robot group performed bending according to a three-dimensional (3D) stereolithography (STL) model of the target archwire, while all manual bending operations were completed by a single attending orthodontist. High-resolution two-dimensional images of finished archwires were captured, and angular and linear bending deviations were quantified by image analysis software. Bending duration was recorded using a stopwatch.

The robot group exhibited significantly smaller deviations in three angular parameters and the height parameter than the manual group (P<0.05). No significant intergroup differences were found for the remaining six angular parameters and the width parameter (P=0.053). The mean bending time was 141.0±10.2 seconds for the robot group, nearly 45% of the manual group's duration (316.1±36.2 seconds), and this time difference was statistically significant (P<0.05).

The proposed desktop robotic system achieves accuracy comparable to skilled orthodontists for most bending parameters, with superior precision in specific angular indices and vertical height. Additionally, the robotic system delivered faster, more efficient and highly consistent archwire bending performance.