Effects of repeated sterilization cycles on primary stability of orthodontic mini-screws.

Objective: To determine if repeated sterilization has deleterious effects on the clinical stability of mini-screws.

Materials And Methods: Thirty each of the following mini-screws were tested: Aarhus (American Orthodontics, Sheboygan, Wisc), VectorTAS (Ormco Corporation, Orange, Calif), Dual-Top (RMO, Denver, Colo), and Ortho Anchor (KLS Martin, Jacksonville, Fla). Controls were sterilized once using a steam autoclave (Statim 5000, SciCan USA, Canonsburg, Pa).