Background: Previous studies have confirmed the superiority of using erbium lasers (2940, 2780 nm) over other lasers in the debonding of ceramic brackets due to their safety and effectiveness. The most important factor in the debonding of aesthetic brackets is the transmission of the erbium laser through the aesthetic bracket to the adhesive resin.
Objective: To identify the transmission of the 2940 nm wavelength through different types of aesthetic brackets.
Materials and methods: A total of 60 aesthetic brackets were divided into six equal groups (10 monocrystalline sapphire brackets-Radiance, AO; 10 monocrystalline sapphire brackets-Absolute, Star Dentech; 10 polycrystalline brackets-20/40, AO; 10 polycrystalline brackets-3M Unitek Gemini Clear Ceramic; 10 silicon brackets-Silkon Plus, AO; 10 composite brackets-Orthoflex, OrthoTech). The aesthetic brackets were mounted in a Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR IRPrestige-21, SHIMADZU) following the typical spectroscopy lab procedure for such samples. The transmission ratio for the 2940 nm wavelength was obtained using IRsolution software. The mean transmission values of the tested groups were compared using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test followed by a Bonferroni test (post-hoc test).
Results: The highest transmission ratio was observed for the Radiance sapphire brackets (64.75%) and the lowest was observed for the 3M polycrystalline brackets (40.48%). The differences among the Aesthetic brackets were significant (p < 0.05).
Conclusions: The thick polycrystalline and composite brackets have the lowest transmissibility, whereas the monocrystalline sapphire brackets have the highest transmissibility for the 2940 nm wavelength, meaning that there is a higher possibility of debonding them with a hard tissue laser through thermal ablation.
Keywords: adhesive resin; aesthetic bracket; ceramic; debonding; erbium laser; hard tissue laser; infrared; spectrophotometer; thermal ablation; thermal softening; transmission.