Flowable composites as "filled adhesives:" a microleakage study

The purpose of this in vitro study was to investigate the microleakage at dentin margins of a flowable resin composite associated with an adhesive, either light cured separately or co-cured, in Class V cavities.

Twenty four recently extracted human molars were prepared with standardized box-shaped Class V cavities of 3.0 mm (mesial-distal), 2.0 mm (occlusal-gingival), and 2.0 mm depth with margins located on enamel and dentin/cementum on the buccal or lingual surfaces. The cavities were randomly assigned into three groups (n=8): Group I - Single Bond + Filtek Z250 (control); Group II - Single Bond + Filtek Flow (light cured separately) + Filtek Z250; and Group III - Single Bond + Filtek Flow co-cured (light cured simultaneously) + Filtek Z250. After being immersed in tap water for 24 h, the specimens were thermocycled (1000x, 5 degrees -55 degrees C, 30 sec dwell time) and immersed in a 0.5% basic fuchsine solution for 24 h. The restorations were sectioned longitudinally and gingival margins were evaluated for microleakage using a 0-4 scale. Data were subjected to the Kruskal-Wallis test at p<0.05.

A statistically significant difference at p = 0.0044 between Groups 1 and 3 and Groups 2 and 3 was observed. Although Group 2 performed slightly better than Group 1, no significant difference was observed.

The use of a flowable resin composite cured simultaneously with an adhesive yielded the worst results in this study. As no statistical differences were seen between Groups 1 and 2, the use of a flowable composite as a means of minimizing microleakage at dentin margins may be questioned.