Comparing bacterial colonization of laser etched and acid etched enamel in bonding orthodontic ceramic brackets

Abstract

The aim of this project comparing bacterial colonization of laser etched and acid etched enamel in bonding orthodontic ceramic brackets and also to develop a method which reduces the risk of enamel demineralization and tooth decay caused by acid etching. In this project, after cleaning bovine teeth, before the embedding gypsum block, 10*10 mm area was created a labial surface of teeth. Then, they were buried in gypsum block as the labial surface. They were put in the gypsum block as parallel as possible. Then, the first step is the bonding of ceramic brackets by using acid etching (for acid etching group phosphoric acid solution is used within the ratio of 37% to the bonding surfaces. Then laser etching method was applied. Universal testing machine was used to debond the brackets. The second step was inoculation of bacteria to measure colonization of bacteria on the teeth after laser etching and acid etching techniques. There were 4 different experimental groups: Acid etched group, Laser etched group, Non-etched group, and Gypsum group. Each group was composed of 12 samples. After the inoculation part, S. Mutants colonies were counted on a counting aid manually and the colony-forming units (CFUs) were examined. Results show that there was a significant difference between debonding forces (nonetched vs acid etched, laser etched) and there was a significant difference between CFU values of laser etched and acid etched groups. Mean value and average CFU values for laser etched groups were lower than acid etched groups.|Keywords : Acid Etching, Laser, Debonding, Ceramic Brackets, Bacteria