A 12-Month Evaluation of Orthodontic Ceramic Brackets Bonded to Enamel Using two Adhesives: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Abstract

Background and aim: Few long-term clinical trials have addressed the evaluation of the failure rates of ceramic brackets in literature. The aim of this single-operator, randomized clinical trial (RCT) was to compare the bonding failure rate at 12 months of ceramic brackets bonded with two orthodontic composite adhesives to enamel.

Materials & Methods: Forty six patients, receiving non-extraction orthodontic treatment at the Orthodontic Department in the Faculty of Dental Medicine/Damascus University, with a total of 920 bonded brackets were recruited in this study.

Two diagonal quadrants in each patient were randomly assigned to the traditional composite group (Transbond™ XT that is the control group) and the contralateral diagonal quadrants to the single component composite group (OrthoCem that is the experimental group). Incidents of brackets' failures over 12 months follow up period were recorded during all through the 2016-2018.

Results: Failure rates for both control and experimental groups were comparable with no significant differences (4.8%, and 6.3% respectively). Brackets located in the mandible had significant higher failure rates than those in the maxilla (P= 0.048, 6.9% and 4.1% respectively).

Conclusion: Transbond™ XT and OrthoCem have similar failure rates and accordingly a similar clinical performance. Brackets bonded to teeth located in the mandible possess a higher failure risk.

Index Words: Failure rate, Ceramic brackets, Composite adhesive.