Microtensile bond strength of etch-and-rinse and self-etch adhesives to artificially created carious dentin

This article evaluates a pH-cycling model for simulation of caries-affected and caries-infected dentin (CAD and CID, respectively) surfaces, by comparing the bond strength of an etch-and-rinse and a self-etch adhesive system. For both adhesives, bonding to sound dentin (SD) showed that the microtensile bond strength (μTBS) values of SD, CAD, and CID were SD > CAD > CID (P < 0.05). Knoop microhardness number mean values followed the same trend. Adhesive systems were not able to totally penetrate into CAD and CID, forming more irregular resin-dentin interdiffusion zones and atypical resin tags than SD. The tested in vitro pH-cycling caries model allowed the evaluation of specific dentin substrate alterations in response to μTBS. The type of dentin and its histological structure played an important role in etch-and-rinse and self-etch bonding, as lower μTBS values were attained in CAD and CID.