Easy Placement of Open-Coil Springs

Open-coil springs are often placed over arch­wires to open space for blocked-out teeth (Fig. A) or for other purposes. When a spring is com­pressed between the brackets, however, it tends to bow the archwire and make it pop out of one or both brackets before it can be tied in. In addi­tion, when the operator's hand is gloved, it is impossible to hold the end of the spring away from the bracket with a fingernail.

To eliminate these problems, slip a length of dead-soft ligature wire through both ends of the coil spring. Twist the ends of this wire into a pigtail, thus compressing the spring. Place the archwire with the compressed coil in the mouth, and tie it into the brackets (Fig. B). Cut and remove the ligature wire compressing the spring (Fig. C).

Although the spring shown here was placed in the anterior segment for ease of photography, the most common clinical application of this technique will be in the posterior segments.