ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical effectiveness of a plasma arc light and light emitting diode (LED), compared with shear bond strength and the failure pattern of brackets bonded with visible light in direct bonding. Brackets were bonded with Transbond XT to 60 human premolars embedded in the resin blocks according to different light-curing methods. Then, the shear bond strength of each group was measured using a universal testing machine (Instron) and the adhesive failure pattern after debonding was visually examined by light microscope. The results were as follows: 1. The shear bond strength showed no significant difference between the visible light and light emitting diode, but the plasma arc light exhibited a significantly lower shear bond strength compared with the visible light and light emitting diode. 2. In the visible light and light emitting diode, adhesive failure patterns were similar. Bond failure occurred more frequently at the enamel-adhesive interface. 3. The bonding failure of brackets bonded with plasma arc light occurred more frequently at the bracket-adhesive interface. The results of this study suggest that plasma arc light, light emitting diode and visible light are all clinically useful in the direct bonding of orthodontic brackets.