INTERVENTIONS
mandibular anterior teeth
At the brackets debonding appointment, the appliances were removed, the teeth in all subjects were submitted to scaling by the same clinician (S.A.), and the retainers were bonded.Both types of retainers were bonded to the lingual surfaces of all mandibular anterior teeth, from canine to canine, by the same clinician (S.A.), using Transbond LR composite (3M Unitek, Monrovia, California, USA). A standard procedure for fitting each bonded retainer was applied. For the multi-strand wire retainer group, a mandibular arch impression was taken and poured, to fabricate the final model for each patient. A multi-strand stainless steel wire (0.0215-in) retainer (3M Unitek, Monrovia, California, USA) was fitted to the model using rubber handles, which were then bonded to the lingual surface of the mandibular anterior teeth, to help holding the retainer while bonding (
