Comparison of clinical bond failure rates and bonding times between two adhesive precoated bracket systems

To compare the clinical bracket failure rate and bonding time differences between Adhesive Precoated Flash-Free (APCF) and Adhesive Precoated Plus (APCP) bracket systems.

Thirty-three patients (7 male and 26 female) with a mean age of 17.2 ± 3.6 years and permanent dentition were included in the study. Total of 660 brackets were bonded by 1 operator with the use of a split-mouth design, and bracket failure rates were observed over 6 months. Bracket bonding time of each group was also evaluated. Bracket failure rates were evaluated by means of chi-square test. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey honestly significant difference tests were used to evaluate the bonding time differences between groups.

The overall, APCF, and APCP bracket failure rates were 1.21%, 1.81%, and 1.51%, respectively. Chi-square test revealed significant differences (P <0.01) between groups in bracket failure rates. The upper left APCP group showed significantly (P <0.05) more failure than the other groups. One-way ANOVA test (P <0.001) showed statistically significant bonding time differences between groups. Bonding time of APCF brackets was significantly shorter than the bonding time of APCP brackets for the same quadrants. Chi-square test did not reveal significant differences (P >0.05) between groups according to adhesive remnant index scores.

Compared with APCP brackets, APCF brackets can reduce the bonding time without increasing bracket failure rate.