Bonding In Orthodontics

In dentistry Bonding is a term conventionally used to describe the use of an adhesive or cement to hold a covering to a stained or damaged tooth or to secure Orthodontic appliances to the teeth. The evolution of orthodontic materials in the past five decades has been a unique progress curve characterized by periods of intense activity with many developments followed by long quiescent intervals. Even though acid etch technique was introduced in the mid 1950s it took more than a decade for this practice to become a standard procedure in orthodontics on a large scale. In fact orthodontic bonding has advanced more in the last ten years than in the last quarter of the century like unprecedented progress with materials and technique such as glass ionomer bonding self etching primers new powerful light curing sources etc. The rapid pace of advancement in the field continues to challenge the clinicians to stay abreast in the race with technology. This speedy advancement in the material science has also altered the commercial life of the materials as new material introduced a few years ago soon becomes obsolete. This is a possible outcome of a lack of strenuous quality control research deficiencies and a product of aggressive marketing strategy by the commercial product companies Thus an evidence based approach must extend to orthodontic bonding materials with emphasis on the mechanical physical and biological properties and the potential alterations induced by intra oral aging and their implications in orthodontic mechanotherapy.