An in vivo comparison between a visible light-cured bonding system and a chemically cured bonding system

Direct bonding of brackets has become a routine procedure in clinical orthodontics. Many techniques and materials are currently advocated and used, the most recent being light-cured composites. Advantages of the light-cured systems are their relative ease of use, improved bracket placement, and more rapid set of the composite. For a new system to be clinically viable, it must possess properties that are at least as reliable as existing systems. The purpose of this longitudinal clinical study was to evaluate and compare the rate of success and/or failure between a visible light-cured bonding material (Sequence) and a chemically cured bonding material (System 1+), using both systems in every patient. Contralateral quadrants were bonded with each system respectively. A total of 32 patients were followed for a mean period of 11 months (range of 3 to 21 months), with a total of 531 brackets bonded, 265 with visible light-cured and 266 with chemically cured resins. Failures for each system were recorded and failure rates calculated. The failure rate of the visible light-cured composite was 11.3% and that of the chemically cured composite was 12%. A Chi-squared (chi2) test did not reveal any statistically significant differences between the failure rates of the two systems, (chi2 = 0.014, df-1, P > 0.9).