Shear bond strength of metallic brackets bonded with and without enamel bonding agent

Abstract

Introduction: Bonding of brackets is an important part of orthodontic treatment. The optimal bond strength is the main requirement for successful results of orthodontic treatment. The use of enamel bonding agents like primer, sealant on etched enamel surface enhance the shear bond strength, increase resistance against micro leakage, reduce decay susceptibility and increase etched enamel damping. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets bonded with and without using the enamel-bonding agent.

Material and Methods: Hundred extracted maxillary premolars were collected and randomly divided into two groups of 50 each. 50 teeth were allocated to enamel-bonding agent group and 50 kept as control. All teeth in both groups were bonded with metallic brackets using transbond XT light cure composite resin. In the enamel-bonding agent group, two layers of enamel bonding agent were applied before bracket bonding. No enamel bonding agent was used in control group. Bonding was followed by incubation in normal saline at 37â° C for 48 hours and then thermocycling at 1000 cycles. Debonding was performed with a shearing force and shear bond strength was measured using universal testing machine. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 17 and student-t test applied for comparison.

Results: There was no significant difference between the shear bond strength of the two groups.

Conclusions: The use of enamel bonding agent does not enhance bond strength.