A randomized clinical trial comparing the accuracy of direct versus indirect bracket placement

Abstract

Objective: To determine the accuracy of direct or indirect bracket placement.

Design: A prospective, randomized comparison of 2 different methods of bracket placement.

Setting: Queens Hospital, Burton upon Trent, UK between February and May 2001.

Materials and method: Twenty-six consecutive patients requiring upper and lower MBT™ pre-adjusted Edgewise appliances had their labial segments bonded directly or indirectly according to a split mouth system of allocation. Before and after bond-up all brackets were photographed and measured from tracings to determine positional differences from the ideal.

Results: Using ANOVA (General Linear Model), vertical errors were found to be greater than those in the horizontal plane, which in turn were greater than angular errors (p<0.05). Errors were greater in the maxillary arch than in the mandibular arch. There was no significant difference between the mean errors produced by the two methods of bracket placement.

Conclusions: Mean bracket placement errors were similar with both techniques.

Keywords:

• Accuracy
• bracket placement
• direct bonding
• indirect bonding
• randomized clinical trial

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Pat Watkin, Mike Sharland and Marina Tipton for their technical assistance in this study, and 3M Unitek for the kind provision of the MBT™ brackets.