Comparative Evaluation of Four Different Mouthwashes on Frictional Resistance between the Orthodontic Bracket and Archwire: An In Vitro study

AIM OF THE STUDY: To compare four different mouthwashes on Frictional Resistance between the orthodontic bracket and archwire. METHODS: A total of 100 freshly extracted natural teeth were collected and stored in formalin. All the teeth were individually mounted in acrylic block. The specimens were split and color coded into 5 groups. The five different oral rinses used in this study are Artificial saliva (Group A), Tea Tree oil (Group B), Tea Tree oil with coconut oil (Group C), Chlorhexidine (Group D), Phosflur (Group E) composing of 20 teeth each. The enamel surfaces are cleaned with pumice and etched with 37% Ortho-phosphoric acid. The bonding agent Scotch bond 3M Transbond XT Primer was applied over the etched surface and 3M Unitek Gemini brackets were bonded to each tooth and cured using Bluephase Ivoclar Vivadent. 50mm length 19×25 SS (G & H) straight archwire was ligated individually to all the brackets using 3M elastic modules. The specimens were immersed in their respective solutions for 1.5 hours and subjected to Universal testing machine to measure the frictional resistance. The archwire was pulled through the bracket at 0.5mm/min crosshead speed with 5N load. The data obtained were transferred to the computer. RESULTS: There is a statistically significant difference in the scores when compared between the groups p