WATERLOO — Any family with a child who has braces knows that frequent visits to the orthodontist for adjustments are part of the package.

And the overall course of treatment can take a number of years to complete.

But what if the process could be made much more efficient by using a single orthodontic wire through the majority of the treatment, rather than having to replace the wire on a regular basis?

That's the goal behind a wire created by Waterloo's Smarter Alloys, using technology that could be applied to a host of markets, from health care and aerospace to automobiles and sporting goods.

Smarter Alloys chief executive officer Ibraheem Khan discovered what the company now calls multiple memory material technology about five years ago while he was working on his PhD at the University of Waterloo.

Khan was working with types of metals known as shape memory alloys, which essentially can remember and return to their original shape even after they've been deformed.

Shape memory alloys, which are among a group of materials called smart materials, have been in use for decades, including in orthodontic wires.

A traditional orthodontic wire made from a shape memory alloy exerts the same stiffness across its length.

Khan's breakthrough was the discovery that he could embed a number of memories into the same shape memory alloy, rather than just one.

"We've unlocked the true potential of these materials to function as machines," explained Michael Kuntz, Smarter Alloys' vice-president of marketing and product development. "It's a breakthrough in the ability to control the material."

A Smarter Alloys orthodontic wire can be programmed to exert different degrees of stiffness across its length, eliminating the need for frequent replacement.

"The ability to target each tooth with optimal stiffness is a significant innovation," Kuntz said.

A number of case study patients are using the technology in North America, and preliminary results show that a considerable reduction in treatment time is possible, Kuntz said.

And fewer adjustment visits mean orthodontists may be able to treat more patients during their office hours.

Kuntz said the new wires could be on the market next year in North America.

After Khan completed his PhD, he took the technology to the MaRS Discovery District, an innovation hub in Toronto.

He returned to Waterloo Region last year, setting up shop in the Velocity Foundry in Kitchener before quickly outgrowing the space and moving to a facility on Bathurst Drive in Waterloo earlier this year.

The move back to the region — "a centre of excellence in manufacturing," Kuntz said — is advantageous for several reasons.

For one thing, the company conducts some collaborative research and development projects with the University of Waterloo.

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"Being close to those projects again was of paramount importance," Kuntz said. "Being close to that talent is important as well."

Kuntz — who was actually Khan's supervisor at UW while Khan was working on his master's degree — joined the company about a year ago. He had been working at UW in business development and research partnerships.

Smarter Alloys currently has about 10 full-time employees, but that could double in the coming months, Kuntz said, as the company moves to commercialize the wires.

"We'll be ramping up manufacturing in this facility," he said, and additional manufacturing space may be necessary going forward.

Potential applications for the Smarter Alloys' technology go far beyond the orthodontist's chair.

It could be used in a wide range of medical devices, from programmable stents that can react to a surgeon's inputs to steerable guide wires for catheters.

In a vehicle or an airplane, a single wire could work like a tiny motor, eliminating some traditional components while saving space and weight.

The company chose to pursue the orthodontic application first because the industry already uses shape memory alloys and orthodontists are familiar with their use, Kuntz said.

As well, the regulatory environment is not as rigorous as it is with implanted medical devices, he said.

The Smarter Alloys process is patented, giving the company the flexibility to determine which use to tackle next.

"It's a really exciting space. There's so much potential," Kuntz said. "It's hard for us to prioritize those different applications and not spread ourselves too thin."