Evaluation of shear bond strength of orthodontic adhesives with integrated primer: A comparative study

The study aimed to compare the shear bond strength (SBS) of three orthodontic adhesives with integrated primer, with those of self-etching and conventional bonding adhesives. One hundred extracted premolars were randomly allocated to five groups. Brackets were bonded using three adhesives with integrated primer (GC Ortho Connect™, Biofix, and Orthocem). A group of brackets was bonded with the conventional bonding procedure (Transbond XT) and one group was bonded with a self-etching primer (Transbond™ Plus). All samples were subjected to thermal aging (5000 cycles: At 5°C and 55°C media). The compressive strength test was performed and the maximum load when the bracket detached was recorded. The amount of residual adhesive (ARI) remaining on the tooth surface was assessed visually. Significantly higher SBS values were recorded with the conventional technique (14.01 ± 5.79 megapascals [MPa]), compared to other groups except for GC Ortho Connect™ (11.86 ± 3.83 MPa). There was no significant difference between the self-etching group and the groups containing integrated primer samples. However, one of the adhesives with integrated primer presented SBS values near-slightly below the limit considered clinically successful (7.65 ± 3.71 MPa). The ARI scores varied between adhesive groups; GC Ortho Connect™ and the self-etching primer samples showed statistically significantly higher scores compared to the three other groups. Clinically successful bonding values were achieved with two out of three different adhesives with integrated primer. One of the adhesives with integrated primer provided a similar SBS value to the tri-step conventional bonding procedure. ARI scores varied independently from SBS values.