title: Profile of the orthodontist practicing in the State of São Paulo--part 2.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The choice of brackets, bands and wires is a very important aspect of orthodontic treatment. Stainless steel prevailed for a long time, but new alloys and resources have emerged to diversify the orthodontic wire mechanics.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to investigate the profile and materials used by orthodontists practicing in the State of São Paulo, Brazil.
  
  
  METHODS
  A questionnaire was sent to 2,414 specialists in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics registered with the Regional Board of Dentistry of São Paulo State (CRO-SP). To assess the association between qualitative variables, the Chi-square association test was employed at 5% significance level.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Five hundred and ninety-three (24.65%) questionnaires were completed and sent back. Efficiency was the key reason given by the professionals for choosing a particular material. The majority showed a preference for metal brackets (98%), followed by ceramics (32%) and polycarbonate (7.8%). The most widely used brackets had 0.022 x 0.028-in slots (73.2%). Regarding orthodontic wires, 88.2% employed round steel wires and conventional round NiTi wires, while 52.6% used round heat-activated NiTi and 46.5% rectangular TMA wires. Elastics (92.9%) were the most widely used method to tie the orthodontic archwire to the bracket.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In this survey, the orthodontists claimed that efficiency was the major motivator for choosing orthodontic materials. Conventional brackets tied with conventional elastic ligatures are still the most used by the professionals. Among steel and conventional Nitinol wires, round wires ranked first. The use of resources recently available to Brazilian orthodontists, such as self-ligating brackets and mini-implants, was not significant.
authors.affiliation: SL Mandic. fabiorampon@terra.com.br
authors.forename: Fabio Brandalise
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Rampon
authors.forename: Celestino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nóbrega
authors.forename: José Luiz Gonçalves
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bretos
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Arsati
authors.forename: Sérgio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jakob
authors.forename: Maria Cristina
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Jimenez-Pellegrin
mesh_terms: D001938:Brazil; D006801:Humans; D009967:Orthodontic Appliances / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009970:Orthodontics / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D019239:Practice Patterns, Dentists'; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Dental research; Materials; Orthodontics