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

Objective: To compare the clinical bracket failure rate and bonding time differences between Adhesive Precoated Flash-Free (APCF) and Adhesive Precoated Plus (APCP) bracket systems. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: Compared with APCP brackets, APCF brackets can reduce the bonding time without increasing bracket failure rate.