Morphological Characteristics of Self-Etch Adhesives Bonding to Non-Carious Cervical Sclerotic Dentin

Abstract

The objective of this study was to observe the morphological characteristics of self-etch adhesives bonding to non-carious cervical sclerotic dentin using Confocal Laser Scanning Microscope (CLSM). Thirty human premolars with buccal non-carious cervical sclerotic lesions were selected, and artificially prepared wedge-shaped lesion was made in lingual surface of this tooth. The dentin lesions were bonding with one-step self-etch adhesive (XENO III and G-Bond Plus) and two-step self-etch adhesive (Clearfil SE Bond) according to the manufacturer's instruction, respectively. The bonding adhesive component was labeled with 0.1 wt.% Rhodamine B Isothiocyanate. The hybrid layer and resin tags of resin-dentin interface were observed using CLSM. Statistical analysis showed that there were significant differences between non-carious sclerotic dentin and normal dentin in the thickness of hybrid layer and length of resin tags (p < 0.05). The self-etch adhesives significantly affected the hybrid layer thickness and resin tags length between resin and normal dentin interface (p < 0.05), while for resin-sclerotic dentin interface, no significant difference was observed (p > 0.05). The sclerotic dentin presented thinner hybrid layer and shorter resin tags than the normal dentin. There were similar morphological characteristics of resin-sclerotic dentin interface using one-step and two-step self-etch adhesives.