STRESS ANALYSIS & REVERSE ENGINEERING ON ADAMS AND PUNCH CLASP: AN ORTHODONTIC APPLIANCE

Orthodontic appliances are used for the treatment of malocclusions of a tooth or group of teeth. These appliances is retained in oral cavity with the help of its integral component known as Clasp which engages the undercuts of teeth for retention. There are generally two types of orthodontic appliances, Removal and Fixed type. Here we are dealing with “Removable” type of orthodontic appliance which can be removed for cleaning purpose by the patient or for re-adjustment by the orthodontist. In removal type of Orthodontic appliances stresses is induced in the Clasp either due to removal or insertion of appliance as well as during mastication, which may leads to deformation and fracture of the Clasp earlier. Therefore, achieving clasp designs producing less stress is very important. The present wok is focused on stress analysis of two types of Clasps 1) Adams and 2) Punch Clasp. Adams clasp is more commonly used for retention of these appliances. With some modification a new type of Clasp is made known as Punch Clasp. Comparative study of these clasps shows that under the similar loading condition stress induces in Punch Clasp is less than stress induces in Adams Clasp. We employed Reverse Engineering approach to develop the CAD models of the Clasp and Stress analysis is done using Finite Element analysis software ANSYS.