5. Conclusions
1.
Elastics’ decay pattern starts by losing a big amount of force at the first half hour, and more force is lost in the first 10 cycles in the cyclic test.
2.
Latex elastics are significantly superior in retaining forces than the non-latex ones, and this may indicate that non-latex elastics need to be changed more frequently.
3.
In the static test, there are no significant differences between the tested different groups of latex elastics or even between the different groups of the non-latex elastics, however, under cycling testing, significant difference were detected.
4.
Forces generated by the elastics do not consistently equal the loads specified by the manufacturers.