Yeah, I was just watching something like this on Modern Marvels. The pyramids. Created in that shape so they could absorb more weight with the clay sun baked bricks. Really fascinating. Also the baking of the clay added to compressive strength. I could have sworn they called it tensile strength, but maybe my memory is off.
I get it now, anyway, so thanks.
I don't see how this force would be applicable at all to jaw surgery. There's no extreme force pulling the bones apart. I'd go with normal plates. But I suggest the OP ask the surgeon about it and why under a worse-case circumstance those would be needed.
Well, with a sun baked brick, they become hard when they are dried out and able to withstand compression (as opposed to being squished when they are still wet). But the stones used for the pyramids were QUARRIED from stone and not sun baked bricks. However, the ziggurats built by the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians etc. used sun baked bricks and the decorative facades of some of the structures were glazed in different colors with further baking in a kiln. In terms of TIME (like 1000's of years, mud baked bricks are subject to the elements (they can erode) and don't last too long. But I digress.
Now as to the bones in jaw surgery, eg. the mandibular displacement 'forward' with the BSSO, as you know, it is the MUSCLES that are going to want to 'push back' on the forward displacement; 'relapse'. So, the displacement puts the muscles under tension. So, the material used to keep the muscles under tension needs to withstand what I think they call the 'muscle memory' where the muscles want to return to where they were prior when they were not under tension because they want to RESIST the tension they were put in. So, maybe that's why the brackets were termed 'high tensile' strength. But in actuality, the force the muscles use to COUNTER the TENSION they are put in by the forward displacement is OPPOSITE to tension such that they want to 'compress'. The MATERIAL used for the brackets (titanium) is not put under tension. It's the MUSCLES that are put under tension with the displacement. OK.
The upshot of this is that the material needs to withstand yielding or 'buckling' to the muscle forces which 'want to go back' where they were before. So, what they call 'regular' would do that as well as what they call 'high tensile'. But I do think that what they are calling 'high tensile' refers to the purity of the titanium (it's expensive material) as opposed to its ability to withstand muscle forces. So, I think it's a 'gobblygook' description.
The CLUE is when they say the 'high tensile' Ti brackets will last a lifetime. That would refer to their ability to RESIST CORROSION and hence be closer to 'pure' Ti than another alloy made with Ti.
I agree that he should ask his surgeon. I would add that he ask: 'Can you remove the plates in a YEAR or so?' This is because any plate you put in there can be removed after the bones have HEALED as they are not needed anymore and even with very 'pure' Ti, it's still subject to infection around it later down the line. So, not only should he get the 'regular' as you say but also he should make sure his doctor will REMOVE them after his bones are totally HEALED.
