Effect of prior acid etching on bonding durability of single-step adhesives

This study investigated the effect of prior phosphoric acid etching on the enamel bond strength of five single-step self-etch adhesive systems: Absolute, Clearfil tri-S Bond, Fluoro Bond Shake One, G-Bond and One-Up Bond F Plus. Bovine mandibular incisors were mounted in self-curing resin, and the facial surfaces were wet ground with #600 silicon carbide paper. Adhesives were applied to the enamel surfaces with or without prior phosphoric-acid etching and light irradiated. The resin composites were condensed into a mold and light irradiated. In total, 40 specimens were tested per adhesive system with and without prior acid etching and were further divided into two groups: those stored in water at 37 degrees C for 24 hours without cycling and those stored in water at 37 degrees C for 24 hours followed by thermal cycling between 5 degrees C and 55 degrees C with 10,000 repeats. After storage under each set of conditions, the specimens were tested in shear mode at a crosshead speed of 1.0 mm/minute. Two-way analysis of variance, the Student's t-test and the Tukey HSD test were used to analyze the data at a significance level of 0.05. For the specimens without prior acid etching, the mean bond strengths to enamel ranged from 11.0 to 14.6 MPa after 24-hour storage in water, while the corresponding values for specimens with prior acid etching ranged from 15.2 to 19.3 MPa. When these specimens were subjected to thermal cycling, the mean bond strengths ranged from 11.3 to 17.0 MPa without prior acid etching and from 12.3 to 23.2 MPa with prior acid etching. The changes in enamel bond strengths differed among the adhesive systems tested. After 24-hour storage in water, the most common failure modes were adhesive failure and mixed failure for specimens with and without prior acid etching, respectively. Thus, through a careful choice of adhesive system, prior acid etching can increase the bond strengths of single-step self-etch adhesive systems.