Bond strength of thermally recycled metal brackets.

Bracket recycling has emerged concurrently with the practice of direct bonding. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of recycling on the retention of mesh-backed stainless steel brackets. Mesh strand diameter was measured on forty new brackets. These brackets were bonded to recently extracted human premolar teeth, and the tensile force required to fracture each bond was recorded. The brackets were then reconditioned by a thermal process. The mesh strand size was remeasured and the tensile test was repeated. It was found that (1) mesh strand diameter decreased 7 percent during the reconditioning process (93.89 microns +/- 3.17 S.D. compared to 87.07 microns +/- 4.76 S.D., z = 17.62, P less than 1 X 10(-5) ), (2) new bracket bonds were 6 percent stronger than recycled bracket bonds (43.88 pounds +/- 7.98 S.D. bond strength), and (3) reduction in mesh strand diameter during the reconditioning process did not correlate with changes in bond strength between initial and recycled bonding (Pearson r = 0.038).