Archwire

An orthodontic archwire is a wire conforming to the alveolar or dental arch that can be used with dental braces as a source of force in correcting irregularities in the position of the teeth. An archwire can also be used to maintain existing dental positions; in this case it has a retentive purpose.

Orthodontic archwires may be fabricated from several alloys, most commonly stainless steel, nickel-titanium alloy (NiTi), and beta-titanium alloy (composed primarily of titanium and molybdenum).

Nobles metals such as gold, platinum, iridium, silver and their alloys were used early on in the field of Orthodontics because of their good corrosion resistance. Some of the other qualities that these alloys had were high ductility, variable stiffness (with heat), high resilience and ease of soldering. Disadvantages of these alloys were: Less elasticity, less tensile strength and greater cost. Composition of both platinum and palladium raised the melting point of the alloy and made it corrosion resistant. Copper material, along with the cold-working of the material, gave the strength to the alloy. The alloy composition of the wires made of noble metals would be Gold (55%-65%), Platinum (5-10%), Palladium (5-10%), Copper (11-18%) and Nickel (1-2%). These composition were similar that of Type IV Gold casting alloys. Edward Angle first introduced the German Silver in orthodontics in 1887 when he tried replacing the noble metals in this practice. At that time, John Nutting Farrar condemned Angle for using a material which lead to discoloration in the mouth. He then in 1888, started altering the alloy composition around the German Silver. However, Angle's composition were extremely difficult to reproduce and therefore, the usage of Silver based alloys did not get popular in orthodontics. Angle was also known to use materials such as rubber, vulcanite, piano wire and silk thread.

...
Wikipedia