OBJECTIVE: This in vitro study verified the resistance to corrosion of metallic brackets, evaluating the superficial aspects in scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and the residual components. METHODS: The sample consisted of 17 sets of brackets of four different metallic alloys: Titanium, Cobalt-Chromium, Stainless steel with low nickel concentration and with titanium nitride coating (NiTi). Twelve sets were submitted to corrosion by immersion in 50 ml of artificial saliva (pH 6.5) and four in saliva (pH 6.5) containing fluoride (2 g/l), all at a temperature of 37 ºC and analyzed after 7, 9 and 11 weeks. One was kept as control set. The analysis consisted in qualitative evaluation of the corrosion by the images obtained on the SEM, in semi-quantitative evaluation of chemical composition of the surface residue by SEM-EDS and the amount of ions released in saliva on evaluation of atomic absorption spectrophotometry. RESULTS: The results showed that the pure titanium brackets and the ones with low nickel concentration were superior regarding resistance to corrosion. The cobalt-chromium alloy showed the greatest corrosion. In the presence of fluoride, it was observed greater variation in all alloys, especially in the ones of NiTi coated steel and the ones of cobalt-chromium. CONCLUSION: Although observed corrosion on the SEM, the spectrophotometry showed low ions release in the artificial saliva, however, the presence of fluoride negatively affected the corrosion resistance.
Corrosion; Fluoride; Orthodontic brackets; Stainless steel; Titanium; Chromium alloys
