Comparison of the accuracy of bracket placement between direct and indirect bonding techniques

An in vitro study was conducted to evaluate the accuracy of bracket placeme nt for direct and indirect bonding techniques. Nineteen sets of duplicated Class II malocclusion models were divided into three groups: (1) one set fo r ideal bracket placement, (2) nine sets for direct bonding on mannequins, and (3) nine sets for indirect bonding. Both direct and indirect bonding we re performed on all teeth except molars by nine faculty members from the De partment of Orthodontics, University of Pennsylvania. The position of each bonded bracket from these two bonding groups was compared with that of the same tooth from the ideal group and to each other in terms of bracket heigh t, mesiodistal position, and angulation. Our results indicated that both di rect and indirect bonding techniques failed to execute ideal bracket placem ent. On individual teeth, there was no statistically significant difference in the accuracy of bracket placement between these two bonding techniques except for upper right second premolar and lower left central incisor, wher e indirect bonding yielded better results in bracket height (P < .05), and for lower left central incisor where indirect bonding was better in mesiodi stal position (P < .05), and for upper right lateral incisor where direct b onding was closer to the ideal in angulation (P < .05). Overall, indirect b onding showed better bracket placement in bracket height (P < .05), whereas , no statistically significant difference was found between them regarding the angulation and mesiodistal position.