Effects of oil-based and oil-free enamel prophylactic agents on bracket failure--a prospective randomized clinical trial.

This study evaluates and compares the effects of enamel prophylaxis using either oil-free pumice or oil-containing prophylaxis paste on the incidence of bracket failure in orthodontic patients. Forty-six orthodontic patients participated in this prospective clinical trial. A cross-mouth method was used in each patient, in which two diagonal quadrants (i.e. upper right and lower left or vice versa) were randomly assigned to the pumice group and the contralateral diagonal quadrants to the Prophy Paste group. A total of 836 teeth were bonded using Transbond XT (3M Unitek) and monitored for an average of 23 months for bond failure. Chi-square analysis was used to compare the number of bracket failures between the groups. Overall, 26 bond failures occurred by the end of the trial. Fifteen bracket failures were observed in the Prophy Paste group (3.6%) and 11 in the pumice group (2.6%). The failure rates were fairly evenly distributed between the upper and lower jaws. There were no statistically significant differences between the groups (P = 0.43). This study showed that enamel prophylaxis using either pumice or Prophy Paste before orthodontic bonding works equally well in a clinical setting.