Research progress on bracket bonding for dental fluorosis

Bonding of brackets to dental fluorosis has always been a difficult problem for clinicians. At present, clinical research has adopted several methods to facilitate bracket bonding, including prolonging etching time, enamel microabrasion, enamel ground, using adhesion promoter and laser etching. Prolonging etching time is suitable for mild-to-moderate dental fluorosis with easy chair-side operation; however, over-etching may cause severe tooth damage. Microabrasion can be applied to mild dental fluorosis while removing pigment deposition simultaneously; however, rubber dam protection is needed. Enamel ground can improve the bond strength to all kinds of dental fluorosis at the price of removing a relatively large amount of superficial enamel. Adhesion promoters might improve the bond strength of moderate to severe dental fluorosis; however, the current results conflict with one another. This needs further verification using larger-sample clinical trials. Laser etching has no effect on improving bond strength; however, it can remove pigment without destroying tooth enamel, which is worth further modification and enhancement.