Abstract: An orthodontic appliance such as a bracket is made of a polymeric material with reinforcing fiber structure embedded in the polymeric material. The reinforcing fiber structure includes relatively long filaments that extend about the perimeter of the bracket including the periphery of an archwire slot. In one embodiment, a method for making the bracket includes the steps of placing a tubular fiber preform in a mold assembly in an orientation aligned with a mesial-distal axis of the resultant bracket, and then closing the mold assembly in directions toward a central axis of the preform.

Abstract: An orthodontic appliance such as a bracket is made of a polymeric material with reinforcing fiber structure embedded in the polymeric material. The reinforcing fiber structure includes relatively long filaments that extend about the perimeter of the bracket including the periphery of an archwire slot. In one embodiment, a method for making the bracket includes the steps of placing a tubular fiber preform in a mold assembly in an orientation aligned with a mesial-distal axis of the resultant bracket, and then closing the mold assembly in directions toward a central axis of the preform.

Abstract: A process of making soft lenses from an esterifiable, partially cross-linked carboxyl-containing polymer, and a method of attaching a haptic to a swellable intraocular lens. The soft contact lenses are made by first forming a lens button from a hard polymer containing .alpha.,.beta.-ethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acid such as acrylic or methacrylic acid and 0.1-10 mols per 100 mols of monomer of a divinyl cross-linking agent such as 1,4-butanediol dimethacrylate. The hard lens button is then esterified by contact with an alcohol having up to 15 carbon atoms such as n-butanol under esterifying conditions in the substantial absence of water while simultaneously removing water of reaction. Unreacted alcohol may be removed by solvent exchange with a lower molecular weight alcohol and/or drying.