Introduction: Bracket debonding from the tooth surface is a common problem in fixed orthodontics. The aims of the present study were to assess the bond strength and failure sites in two ways of bonding technique, with metallic and ceramic brackets.
Materials and methods: One hundred premolars were assigned to 4 groups of 25 each: Group A, metallic brackets/conventional procedure; Group B, metallic brackets/Transbond XT; Group C, ceramic brackets/conventional procedure; and Group D, ceramic brackets/Transbond XT. Transbond XT composite paste was used for bracket bonding and cured by conventional light-cure device. Specimens were subjected to thermocycling. One week after bonding shearing force was applied to the bracket-tooth interface. Bonding failure site optically examined using a stereomicroscope under 10 × magnifications and scoring was done using the adhesive remnant index (ARI). Data were subjected to analysis of One-way variance, Tukey post hoc, Chi-square and Spearman's tests.
Results: Mean bond strength (in MPa) were: group A=9.2, group B=8.5, group C=6.2 and group D=5.7. Bond strength differences between groups A and B, and between C and D were not significant, (p<0.0005). Insignificant difference found in ARI in all groups.
Conclusion: The bond strengths of metallic brackets were significantly higher than ceramic ones and the self-etching primer produce fewer bonds than the conventional method (clinically acceptable).A positive correlation found between changes in shearing bond strength and ARI.