Quantitative comparison of nanoleakage among five resin luting agents after aging

Abstract

Potential problems of one-step adhesives have been identified, including water uptake and subsequent plasticization, water-and enzyme-induced nanoleakage, and the presence of voids due to phase-separation or osmosis. Clinically, adhesive failures due to marginal degradation present as retention loss, marginal discoloration, and secondary caries. However, the mechanisms of adhesive interface degradation of self-etching and self-bonding resin luting agents are not fully understood. The objective of the study was to investigate adhesive layer degradation by using a nanoleakage technique with five different resin luting agents. Materials and Methods: Five different resin luting systems, Variolink II, Panavia F2.0, RelyX Unicem, RelyX Unicem2, and Maxcem Elite were evaluated in this study. The 25 dentin specimens were randomly divided into five resin luting agent groups. Flat dentin surfaces were created mid-coronally and were luted with luting agents. Then, each tooth was sectioned occluso-gingivally. The first half of each tooth was used as a control group and the other half was used as the experimental group. The control group was immersed in artificial saliva at 37°C and SEM examination with chemical analysis was performed within 48 hours. In the tested group, all specimens were immersed in artificial saliva at 37°C for 10 days and thermocycled. For the SEM examination, the specimens were immersed in a 50-percent ammoniacal silver nitrate solution for 24 hours.22 SEM was used for observation of silver penetration of the specimens. Three scan lines were selected. For elemental analysis, natural apatite, olivine minerals, and pure silver metal were chosen as standards for Ca, Si and Ag. Data were analyzed using ANOVA with a 5-percent significance level. Results: At the bottom of the hybrid layer, there was no significant difference in silver uptake within the adhesive interface between luting agents (p > 0.05) and there was no significant change in silver uptake within the adhesive interface after thermocycling (aging) (p > 0.05). Conclusion: All resin luting agents exhibited nanoleakage after both 24-hour storage and 10-day storage with thermocycling.