The filing of bacterial plaque on orthodontic appliances: type of bracket and motivational strengthening

Introduction: the purpose of an orthodontic treat-ment is the achievement of an ideal occlusion through the displacement of the teeth in the bone structure. The presence of bacterial plaque can affect the outcome, and is a possible damage to the periodontal tissues. The aim of this work is to check the time evolution of the plaque of both self-ligating and conventional edgewise orthodontic multibrack-ets appliances and verify the use of an orthodontic Diary as a motivational aid to improve the maintenance of a good level of oral hygiene at home. Materials and methods: 30 patients with fixed orthodontic appliances (Damon 3 system, MBT sys-tem) were examined; of these 24 completed the study. The test performed examined in each patient 5 dental elements: of these 3 bonded with bracket, as study sites, and 2 without brackets, used as control sites. At the control appointments, at time t0, t1, t2, the presence of evident bacterial plaque layer was evaluated in order to determine in which way the presence of plaque is due to the type of bracket and to the type of orthodontic arch in the two different orthodontic appliances. The data have been analyzed with descriptive statistics. Results: a statistical significant difference was evident only for the reduction of the number of subjects positive to the presence of plaque after the use of the motivational tool. No statistical significant difference was evident between the two different appliances. Discussion: the presence of plaque is evident in both the appliances but with greater deposit deeper in the slot of the self-ligating orthodontic brack-ets. The use of the orthodontic diary contributes to increase the patient compliance.