An In-vitro Comparison of the Shear Bond Strength of Three Different Composite Materials with Three Different Etchants for the Bonding of Orthodontic Brackets

Introduction Esthetics, being the major concern of today’s treatments, has led to numerous innovations, including composites, for different treatment options. Esthetic orthodontics requires the use of composites for bonding orthodontic brackets to the teeth. Aims To identify which combination of composites has the highest shear bond strength at the tooth-bracket interface. Materials and methods Three different composite kits were selected for each group (n=42) and were further divided into three subgroups (n=14), where the bonding agents and/or primer were interchanged to find the best combination. Results Sub-group B2 (Orthofix + Eazetch + Universal Bond) showed the highest shear bond strength (10.74 ± 3.45 MPa), which was highly significant at p =/<0.0001. Conclusion The highest shear bond strength was found with the combination of 37% phosphoric acid (Eazetch), GC Universal Bond (GC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan), and Orthofix composite material (Anabond Stedman, Chennai, India). As this study is an in-vitro study, we need longitudinal in-vivo studies to establish the best combination for the bonding of orthodontic brackets.