This study aimed to evaluate the effect of bleaching with carbamide peroxide (CP) according to different doses and intervals between bleaching and bonding on shear bond strength (SBS) of orthodontic brackets.

Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, PubMed, and Scopus were searched for articles published up to June 2018. After removing the duplicates, two of the authors screened the titles and abstracts independently. Assessing the eligibility of the selected full texts was also conducted by two of the authors independently. Disagreements were resolved by discussion. Modified version of Cochrane's risk of bias tool was used to assess the quality of studies. Fifteen studies were selected.

Overall, bleaching with CP decreased the SBS by around 2MPa (P<0.0001). Using 10% CP decreased the SBS of the immediately bonded brackets by 5.13MPa (P<0.005). This value was 1.67MPa when the bonding procedure was postponed by one day (P<0.0001). Postponing the bonding procedure for longer periods did not cause a statistically significant change in SBS. Using 11–16% CP, the reduction in SBS of the immediately bonded brackets was 8.51MPa (P<0.01). The SBS decreased by 4.12MPa when the bonding procedure was postponed for 20days (P<0.05). According to one study, use of CP with>16% concentration seemed not to affect the SBS.

Bleaching with CP decreases the SBS, especially if the bracket bonding is performed shortly after bleaching. However, given the small number of articles interpretation should be made with caution.