Forces that fracture teeth during extraction with mandibular premolar and maxillary incisor forceps.

Our aim was to measure the forces that fracture teeth during extraction based on the effectiveness of the extraction forceps, and to compare them with data collected about forces applied to extracted teeth that did not fracture. We studied 208 patients whose teeth fractured during both the standard and our new method of extraction: maxillary incisors (n=79) extracted with forceps 1 (maxillary incisor forceps), and both maxillary (n=95) and mandibular incisors (n=34) extracted with forceps 13 (mandibular premolar forceps). Forces needed to fracture were assessed with a specially-designed instrument for measuring pressure and rotation.