Adhesion of endodontic sealers: scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy

The microscopic details of the debonded interfaces between endodontic sealers and dentin or gutta-percha were assessed in this study. Dentin, conditioned with 37% H3PO4 for 30 s, 25% citric acid for 30 s, 17% EDTA for 5 min, or a rinse with 10 ml of distilled H2O (control), and gutta-percha surfaces were coated with freshly mixed sealer: Grossman's sealer, Apexit, Ketac-Endo, AH Plus, RoekoSeal Automix, or RoekoSeal Automix with an experimental primer. The surfaces were pressed together and the sealers were allowed to set. After tensile bond strength testing, the morphological aspects of the fractured surfaces were assessed by scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. The energy dispersive spectroscopy successfully traced sealer components to the debonded surfaces. Some of the sealers penetrated into the dentinal tubules when the dentin surface had been pretreated with acids. However, these sealer tags remained occluding the tubules after bond failure in some instances only (Grossman's sealer, RoekoSeal Automix with an experimental primer, AH Plus/EDTA). Penetration of the endodontic sealers into the dentinal tubules when the smear layer was removed was not associated with higher bond strength.