Background: To evaluate the effect of type of orthodontic adhesive on shear bond strength of orthodontic brackets. Materials & methods: Based on the type of adhesive employed, 100 freshly removed premolars were divided evenly into two groups and glued to 0.022 SS brackets: Reliance Orthodontic Product's self-curing glue, Rely-a-Bond (2) Transbond XT, a 3M Unitek light-cure glue. It was evaluated and compared how different orthodontic adhesives affected the shear bond strength of the brackets. The evaluation was done using the SPSS programme. Results: Transbond XT (15.36 MPa) attained the highest bond strength. Self-etching adhesives (Transbond Plus, 11.41 MPa) showed clinically acceptable SBS values. Conclusion: All adhesives yielded SBS values higher than the recommended shear bond strength. Keywords: Shear bond strength, adhesives, orthodontic brackets.