Effects of buccal and lingual enamel sandblasting on shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets bonded with a self-etching primer

Summary The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of sandblasting on the initial shear bond strength (SBS) and on the bracket/adhesive failure mode of orthodontic brackets bonded on buccal and lingual enamel using a self-etching primer (SEP). The brackets were bonded using a SEP and composite resin on the buccal and lingual surfaces of 30 premolars with intact enamel and 30 premolars pretreated by sandblasting with 50 μm aluminum-oxide. Student's paired t-test was used to compare the groups for differences in SBS and a multiple Chi2 test was performed to compare the bond failure mode. It was shown that sandblasting increases significantly SBS of the SEP on the buccal surfaces but the increase on the lingual surfaces is not statistically significant. A comparison of the adhesive remnant index scores indicated that there was more residual adhesive remaining on the teeth that were treated by sandblasting than on the teeth with intact enamel. Besides, there is no statistical difference between SBS of the SEP on buccal and lingual surfaces with intact enamel. Therefore, we can conclude that sandblasting improves the bond between buccal and lingual enamel and resin ant that the SEP provides the same SBS on buccal and lingual intact surfaces.