Ceramic Brackets Enamel Damage

A remaining part of the ceramic bracket on enamel can be shaped in a way that it cannot be removed with pliers and therefore needs to be removed with a rotary instrument.

Ceramic brackets enamel damage.

As a result when teeth touch the brackets or when the brackets are removed from teeth enamel can be damaged. Although some studies have reported no enamel damage when ceramic brackets are debonded with the appropriate pliers 20 21 other studies have reported an increase in enamel cracks or crack length following debonding 22 25 studies by liu et al 23 mundstock et al 24 and årtun25 have reported enamel damage of up to 20 of teeth after debonding of ceramic brackets with pliers. Bond failures of ceramic brackets occur predominantly at the enamel adhesive interface unlike metal brackets where failures are more common at the bracket adhesive interface because the bond strength between ceramic brackets and the adhesive is greater than that between the adhesive and the enamel. The enamel erosion is probably just spots around where the brackets were.

The potential tooth damage from ceramic braces is worse than that from stainless steel according to a review of ceramic brackets published in a 1997 issue of the american journal of orthodontics dentofacial orthopedics. Porcelain braces have significantly improved over recent years proving much sturdier than their predecessors. The process of removing the glue debonding has also been known to cause damage to your tooth surface enamel. Ceramic brackets showed higher aribracket score indicating more damage to enamel surface composite plastic bracket and stainless brackets showed lesser values indicating minimal enamel damage.

Ceramic braces are more than twice as likely to break off or fracture. Laser assisted debonding of ceramic brackets could reduce the risk of enamel damage without causing thermal damage to the pulp. Effects of diode laser debonding of ceramic brackets on enamel surface and pulpal temperature. The bonding process used to attach porcelain brackets has also changed decreasing the risk of tooth damage after treatment.

I think you d be best off getting direct dental bonding but you d need to go to an expert cosmetic dentist for that. An additional risk for enamel damage is caused by the low fracture toughness of the ceramic brackets especially the monocrystalline brackets which may lead to break ups of the bracket itself during debonding 17 27 32. Unfortunately these braces were susceptible to staining and breakage and sometimes contributed to enamel damage when they were removed.