Lingual straightwire treatment with the Orapix system.

ous in-out bends to compensate for differences in tooth thickness, Fujita described his original lingual concept in 1979 as the “mushroom archwire”.1 To reduce the number of bends, mainly in the anterior area, several laboratory techniques—including the CLASS,*2 BEST,3 and Hiro4 systems—have positioned the incisor brackets at the same distance from the labial surfaces as the canine brackets. The result is a shorter interbracket distance, which makes it more difficult to exert three-dimensional control of the incisors. Moreover, the in-out bends between the canines and premolars are still required. Scuzzo and Takemoto demonstrated that lingual straight wires can be used if the brackets are repositioned gingivally, since the difference in thickness of the canines and premolars decreases with the bonding height, but their method requires a physical model setup.5,6 We have developed an alternative straightwire technique, using the Orapix digital system** to fabricate lingual appliances from a virtual setup.7,8