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Abstract

Introduction: Ceramic brackets were brought into orthodontics in an attempt to meet the rising requirement for added esthetic appliances. The objectives of this study were to assess and compare the shear bond strength and bond failure location of presently available clarity ceramic and Transcend brackets. Material and Methods: This comparative study was conducted at Department of Orthodontics, de’Montmorency College of Dentistry Lahore and PCSIR, Lahore for one year from 10th June 2003 to 9th June 2004. Sixty brackets of each type were bonded to 120 extracted human 1st premolar teeth with the similar bonding system. Each bracket type was tested on a Schimadzu testing machine to find out the shear force levels necessary to debond these brackets. All the teeth were examined under an optical and stereo microscope to evaluate the Adhesive Remnant Index (ARI) at bond failure inter phase. Results: The independent t-test performed for comparing the clarity and transcend 6000 ceramic brackets, indicated that there were no statistically significant difference between two brackets tested (P=0.256). The Result of ARI scores indicated that there were no significant differences between the two brackets. (P=0.312). Conclusions: Shear bond strength and ARI scores between the Clarity and Transcend 6000 ceramic brackets are insignificant.