Comparison of clinical failures of lingual retainers bonded with primerless flowable adhesives versus conventional bonding adhesives

Objective: To compare the frequency of clinical failure of lingual retainers bonded with primerless flowable adhesives and conventional bonding adhesives. Study Design: Quasi experimental study. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Orthodontics, Armed Forces Institute of Dentistry Rawalpindi, from Jul 2017 to Jun 2018. Methodology: As per selection criteria, 76 patients were selected by non-probability consecutive sampling technique. Patients were divided into two groups: the conventional bonding adhesive and the primerless flowable adhesive group with 38 patients in each group. Retainers were bonded using standardized procedure with conventional bonding adhesive in one group and primerless flowable adhesive for bonding in the other group. After bonding of retainers, patients were recalled after 3 months and any bonding failures were recorded. Results: Failure rate with conventional bonding adhesive was 10.5% while on the other hand, failure with primerless flowable adhesive was 31.6% with a p-value of 0.047 which showed a statistically significant difference. Conclusion: There was a statistically significant difference of clinical failure rate of lingual retainers bonded with conventional bonding adhesive versus primerless flowable adhesive with greater failure rate of the primerless flowable adhesive.