One-year clinical evaluation of an ethanol-based and a solvent-free dentin adhesive

To analyze the clinical performance of adhesives with various solvents for restoration of non-carious cervical lesions.

The patient pool consisted of a total of 57 patients and 171 teeth (3 teeth per patient), with one non-carious cervical lesion per tooth. For each patient, one tooth was restored with a water-based, two-bottle adhesive (Scotchbond Multi-Purpose - SM), and another tooth with an ethanol-based, one-bottle adhesive (Single Bond - SB), and the other tooth with a solvent-free, one-bottle adhesive (One Coat Bond - OCB), all with resin-based composites (Silux Plus or Synergy). Restorations were assessed by retention, marginal integrity, margin discoloration and air sensitivity, according to modified USPHS criteria. The evaluations were performed at baseline, 6 months and 12 months after initial placement.

The retention rates at 12 months were 98% for the SM adhesive, 91% for the SB adhesive, and 93% for the OCB adhesive. The differences in retention rates were not statistically significant, with 94% restorations retained overall. Measures of marginal integrity, marginal discoloration and sensitivity also had no statistically significant differences between the three adhesives. Overall, for the restorations still retained after 12 months, 80% had non/slightly detectable margins, 80% had no marginal discoloration and 90% had none/mild sensitivity. All three adhesives performed comparably with excellent outcomes after a 12-month period, with no significant differences between the water-based, ethanol-based and solvent-free adhesives, nor between the one-and two-bottle systems. Retention rate was high, air sensitivity was markedly reduced, and marginal integrity was good. Although superficial marginal discoloration was notable, no deep staining was evident. Certain lesion, tooth and patient characteristics may predispose restorations to retention failure.