Microleakage and marginal gap of adhesive cements for noble alloy full cast crowns

Very limited comparative information about the microleakage in noble alloy full cast crowns luted with different types of adhesive resin cements is available. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the microleakage and marginal gap of two self-adhesive resin cements with that of other types of adhesive luting cements for noble alloy full cast crowns. Fifty noncarious human premolars and molars were prepared in a standardized manner for full cast crown restorations. Crowns were made from a noble alloy using a standardized technique and randomly cemented with five cementing agents as follows: 1) GC Fuji Plus resin-modified glass ionomer cement, 2) Panavia F 2.0 resin cement, 3) Multilink Sprint self-adhesive resin cement, 4), Rely X Unicem self-adhesive resin cement with pretreatment, and 5) Rely X Unicem with no pretreatment. The specimens were stored in distilled water at 37°C for two weeks and then subjected to thermocycling. They were then placed in a silver nitrate solution, vertically cut in a mesiodistal direction and evaluated for microleakage and marginal gap using a stereomicroscope. Data were analyzed using a nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Dunn multiple range test at a p<0.05 level of significance. The Rely X Unicem (with or with no pretreatment) exhibited the smallest degree of microleakage at both tooth-cement and cement-crown interfaces. The greatest amount of microleakage was found for Panavia F 2.0 resin cement followed by GC Fuji Plus at both interfaces. No statistically significant difference in the marginal gap values was found between the cementing agents evaluated (p>0.05). The self-adhesive resin cements provided a much better marginal seal for the noble alloy full cast crowns compared with the resin-modified glass ionomer or dual-cured resin-based cements.