Laser v/s Conventional-Comparison of Shear Bond Strength of Orthodontic Brackets Bonded Using Various Etching Techniques

Background/Objectives: The following study was performed to test and compare the shear bond strength and of the orthodontics brackets bonded to extracted human premolar teeth using various etching procedures and also to determine the brackets / adhesive failure mode. Materials/Methods: The teeth were acid-etched using 37% orthophosphoric acid, laser-etched with Er: YAG (Fotona Lares, wavelength, 2 940 nm) and both acid etching followed by laser etching. Orthodontic brackets were bonded to all the teeth using Transbond XT paste (3M Unitek). Results: Shear bond strength of all teeth of each group was determined by using Universal testing machine. Data obtained were compared by Kruskal Wallis analysis of variance (ANOVA) and chi-square (χ 2 ) test was used to compare the adhesive remnant index (ARI) scores for all the three groups. Conclusions: The study found laser-etched procedure more effective than acid-etched procedure and both acid and laser-etched procedures in the management of orthodontics.