Effect of different media on frictional forces between tribological systems made from self-ligating brackets in combination with different stainless steel wire dimensions

The purpose was to determine the effect of different environments (artificial saliva, human saliva, distilled water, dry storage) on frictional forces between various tribological systems made from self-ligating brackets in combination with stainless-steel wires (dimensions: 0.016″×0.022″, 0.018″×0.025″ and 0.019″×0.025″). An universal testing-machine applied a normal force of 1 N. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests (α=5%) were used. Saliva had significantly higher frictional forces (p