Plasma arc versus halogen light curing of orthodontic brackets: A 12-month clinical study of bond failures

The purpose of this randomized clinical trial was to evaluate the performance of adhesive-precoated brackets cured with 2 different light-curing units (conventional halogen light and plasma arc light). Thirty patients treated with fixed appliances were included in the investigation. Each patient's mouth was divided by the split-mouth design into 4 quadrants. In 15 randomly selected patients, the maxillary left and mandibular right quadrants were cured with the halogen light, and the remaining quadrants were cured with the plasma arc light. In the other 15 patients, the quadrants were inverted. A total of 600 adhesive precoated stainless steel brackets were examined: 300 were cured with a conventional halogen light for 20 seconds, and the others were cured with the plasma arc light for 5 seconds. The number, cause, and date of bracket failures were recorded for each light-curing unit over 12 months. Statistical analysis was performed with the Fisher exact test, Kaplan-Meier survival estimates, and the log-rank test. No statistically significant differences in bond failure rates were found between the adhesive-precoated brackets cured with the halogen light and those cured with the plasma arc light; neither were any significant differences in performance found with each light-curing unit between the maxillary and mandibular arches. Plasma arc lights can be considered an advantageous alternative to conventional light curing, because they enable the clinician to reduce the curing time of adhesive-precoated orthodontic brackets without significantly affecting their bond failure rate.