Arch Wire Sleeve, Usage: Hospital, Clinical, Laboratory

• In some patients with dental absences, the presence of the underlying tooth-less wire may hurt. An arch wire is provided with one or more sleeves, each of which is a close fit on the wire and in turn fits closely into the bracket slot in which it is inserted.
• The wire/sleeve combination and the bracket cooperate to produce the desired rotation and tipping of the tooth while, if required, the sleeve/bracket combination can slide freely along the wire.This permits the use of very light moving forces and the use of a wire of uniform cross-section along its length while permitting changes of the wire cross-section for each and any bracket to provide the desired orthodontic action.
• Preferably the wire and sleeve cross-sections cooperate to hold the sleeve against rotation about a mesial- distal axis.
• The ends of the sleeve may be splayed to limit its endwise moElastomericvement in the bracket slot.A sleeve may extend over more than one bracket. The sleeve may be a continuous tube, or it may be slit mesially-distally along its lingual face that is within the slot.