Adhesion of dental sealants to enamel with self-etching adhesives in salivary contamination conditions: Influence of the light curing protocol

Abstract

Purpose To evaluate the influence of the light curing protocol in the shear bond strength of a sealant to enamel treated with two self-etching adhesive systems, in salivary contamination conditions. Materials and Methods The dental sealant (Delton, Dentsply) was applied, after saliva contamination, onto the vestibular enamel of sixty human incisors treated with Xeno III (Dentsply) or Prompt-L-Pop (3M/Espe). These two groups were further divided into two subgroups (n = 15) according to the curing time: 1) the adhesive system was cured with the sealant (co-polymerization), and 2) adhesive and sealant were light cured independently (independent polymerization). After the adhesive procedures, specimens were stored in water (37 °C–24 h) and thermal-cycled. Shear bond strength tests were done in an universal testing machine. Data was analyzed with two-way ANOVA. Results There were no statistical differences (p = 0.267) between the adhesive systems tested. The co-polymerization groups (33.3 ± 9.4 MPa) yielded statistically higher shear bond strength values than the independent polymerization groups (28.2 ± 4.7 MPa). Even with saliva contamination, the self-etching adhesive systems used yielded high shear bond strength values. Conclusions In the conditions tested, the co-polymerization of the adhesive systems with the sealant led to higher bond strength values to enamel than the independent polymerization.