Assessment of Microleakage under Stainless Steel Orthodontic Brackets Bonded with Various Adhesive Systems: An In Vitro Study

AIM AND OBJECTIVEThe aim of this study was to evaluate the extent of microleakage beneath stainless steel orthodontic brackets bonded with different adhesive systems. MATERIALS AND METHODSFreshly extracted 60 human premolar teeth from mandibular arch were included in this study. After sterilizing all teeth, they were stored in thymol solution of 1% for further preparation. Acrylic blocks were used to mount the teeth in a way their roots were totally implanted up to the cement enamel junction in acrylic with crown being visible. A 0.022 slot, stainless steel preadjusted edgewise premolar brackets were taken. Sixty premolars were categorized randomly into three groups (20 premolars in each group) as follows: group I: flowable composite, group II: Fuji Ortho LC, group III: Transbond XT. Later, all the samples were subjected to thermocycling and tested immediately and 24 hours after water storage. The samples were submerged for 24 hours in methylene blue solution (2%) at room temperature. A ×20 magnification stereomicroscope was used to examine all samples. RESULTSThe lowest microleakage (1.34 ± 0.20) was shown by Transbond XT restored teeth, followed by flowable composite group (1.79 ± 0.32) and Fuji Ortho LC group (2.98 ± 0.13). An analysis of variance showed statistically significant differences among various adhesive systems. A statistically significant difference (p