Adhesive systems used for sealing contaminated surfaces: a microleakage evaluation

The aim of this study was to compare two adhesive systems (OptiBond FL and OptiBond SOLO) used as a sole material for sealing pit and fissures on contaminated surfaces with respect to microleakage. After acid etching, 56 sound teeth were contaminated with 1microl of plasma and randomly divided into 8 groups (n = 7). The adhesives were light activated under two conditions (Optilux VCL-403 and VCL-500) for 30 s. Each specimen was exposed to one of the following aging treatments: thermal (4,000 X at 5-55 degrees C for 60 s) plus load cycling (225,000 X with 83.3 N) or thermal plus load and pH cycling (mineralizing/demineralizing solutions). Then, they were immersed in a 50% AgNO3 aqueous solution, sectioned twice and had dye penetration measured through digitized images. ANOVA methods were used to assess the main effects of the factors as well as their interactions. The results indicated a significant difference between the adhesive systems (p < 0.05), suggesting that OptiBond FL has a better performance with respect to microleakage and could be used as a sealing material in accidentally moist or contaminated surfaces.