BACKGROUND Increased accumulation of dental plaque and inflammatory response during treatment is due to the appearance of new retentive places around the components of fixed appliances attached to the teeth. During bonding procedures, there is certain amount of adhesive left on the tooth surface invariably around the margins between bracket and enamel interface called excessive adhesive flash (EAF), which may act as a plaque retentive area. We wanted to evaluate and compare the effect of EAF

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... med from two different orthodontic bonding adhesives on clinical periodontal status of patients undergoing fixed orthodontic appliance therapy. METHODS 20 patients indicated for treatment with fixed stainless steel preadjusted edgewise appliance were selected for the study. A split mouth design was followed where each patient's teeth were divided into 2 groups; Group A: Teeth of right side bonded with non-tooth coloured orthodontic adhesive resin (Transbond XT Plus) – 1st and 4th quadrants; Group B: Teeth of left side bonded with tooth-coloured orthodontic adhesive resin (Transbond XT) - 2nd and 3rd quadrants. Clinical periodontal status was assessed by measuring Muhlemann modified papillary bleeding index, Turesky Gilmore Glickman modification of Quigley Hein Plaque Index, and a modification of the Orthodontic Plaque Index, before bonding (T0) and 1 week after bonding the appliance (T1). RESULTS Readings at T1 had significantly increased compared to T0 indicating increased plaque retention. However, difference between the indices for both groups at T1 was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS The excessive adhesive flash is a site for increased plaque accumulation, irrespective of the composite being tooth coloured or non-tooth coloured. KEY WORDS EAF, Adhesives, Split Mouth