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Debris and friction of self-ligating and conventional orthodontic brackets after clinical use
Raíssa Costa Araújo1, Lívia Monteiro Bichara2, Adriana Monteiro de Araujo2
1a Resident, Department of Orthodontics, Brazilian Association of Dentistry, Belém, Pará, Brazil.
Objective:
To compare the degree of debris and friction of conventional and self-ligating orthodontic brackets before and after clinical use.
Materials And Methods:
Two sets of three conventional and self-ligating brackets were bonded from the first molar to the first premolar in eight individuals, for a total of 16 sets per type of brackets. A passive segment of 0.019 × 0.025-inch stainless steel archwire was inserted into each group of brackets. Frictional force and debris level were evaluated as received and after 8 weeks of intraoral exposure. Two-way analysis of variance and Wilcoxon signed-rank test were applied at P < .05.
Results:
After the intraoral exposure, there was a significant increase of debris accumulation in both systems of brackets (P < .05). However, the self-ligating brackets showed a higher amount of debris compared with the conventional brackets. The frictional force in conventional brackets was significantly higher when compared with self-ligating brackets before clinical use (P < .001). Clinical exposure for 8 weeks provided a significant increase of friction (P < .001) on both systems. In the self-ligating system, the mean of friction increase was 0.21 N (191%), while 0.52 N (47.2%) was observed for the conventional system.
Conclusion:
Self-ligating and conventional brackets, when exposed to the intraoral environment, showed a significant increase in frictional force during the sliding mechanics. Debris accumulation was higher for the self-ligating system.
