Effects of orthodontic appliances on the diagnostic quality of magnetic resonance images of the head.

•Effects of common fixed orthodontic appliance attachments on the quality of MR images were studied.•Of all attachments tested, those made of steel worsened the quality of MR images the most.•Ceramic brackets caused negligible effects on image quality.•Images were differentially affected with different MR sequences.•Images of different regions of the head were affected differentially.