Nano-Crystalline Ceramic Coatings for the Reduction of Sliding Resistance of Orth

描述（由申请人提供）：该小型企业创新研究项目旨在开发硬质陶瓷涂层，以减少正畸治疗过程中弓丝在托槽中的滑动阻力。过大的滑动阻力是摩擦力和切口/结合行为的组合，当托槽沿着沿着金属丝滑动到新位置时，其阻碍牙齿运动，导致可预测的结果更少，并且需要增加的力、治疗时间、“椅时间”和患者成本。如果成功的话，硬涂层将使滑动阻力与弓丝材料的其他特性（例如刚度）分离，并为从业者提供用于解决特定患者问题的新材料系统。第二阶段将继续和扩大非常有前途的第一阶段的结果，其中氧化铝，氧化锆和二氧化钛的薄涂层应用离子束辅助沉积（IBAD）。涂层决定性地降低了正畸器具的主要制造商进行的测试中弓丝的滑动阻力。测试显示滑动摩擦和切口/粘合行为均显著降低;两种涂层材料表现出高耐刮擦性和抗分层性。第二阶段计划将通过优化IBAD参数来改善涂层性能，通过更真实配置的体外测试来评估涂层弓丝，并为临床研究最终选择涂层材料和沉积参数。涂层弓丝将在一所主要研究型大学的有限临床研究中进行评估，以测试其在儿童牙齿矫正的早期和中期阶段的功效。陶瓷涂层正畸弓丝的商业化潜力非常高，正如我们的工业合作者参与的第一阶段实验室测试所证明的那样。第三阶段商业化将是Spire Biomedical涂层和表面改性业务的直接扩展，该业务专门从事骨科假体、导管和其他医疗器械的表面处理。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This Small Business Innovation Research project aims to develop hard ceramic coatings that will reduce the sliding resistance of archwires in their brackets during orthodontic treatment procedures. Excessive sliding resistance, which is a combination of friction and notching/binding behavior, works against tooth motion as the bracket slides along the wire into a new position, resulting in less predictable outcomes, and requiring increased force, treatment time, "chair time," and patient costs. If successful, the hard coatings will decouple sliding resistance from other properties of the arch-wire material, such as stiffness and provide the practitioner with new material systems for solving specific patient problems. Phase II will continue and expand highly promising Phase I results, in which thin coatings of alumina, zirconia, and titania were applied by ion beam assisted deposition (IBAD). The coatings decisively reduced sliding resistance of archwires in tests conducted by a major manufacturer of orthodontic appliances. The testing showed major reductions of both sliding friction and notching/binding behavior; and two of the coating materials demonstrated high resistance to scratching and delamination. The Phase II program will improve on coating properties through optimization of IBAD parameters, evaluate the coated archwires by in vitro testing in a more realistic configuration, and make a final selection of coating material and deposition parameters for a clinical study. Coated archwires will be evaluated in a limited clinica study at a major research university to test their efficacy in early and intermediate stages of tooth straightening in children. The commercialization potential of ceramic-coated orthodontic archwires is very high, as already demonstrated by the Phase I involvement by our industrial collaborators in laboratory testing. Phase III commercialization would be a straightforward expansion of Spire Biomedical's coating and surface- modification business, which specializes in surface treatments for orthopedic prostheses, catheters, and other medical devices.