Effects of burnishing on microleakage in an amalgam system

No significant increase or decrease in microleakage occurred as a result of single or double burnishing of amalgam. When cavity varnish use was compared with no use of cavity varnish, significantly less microleakage was noted with the nonburnished control, single-burnish, and double-burnish techniques utilizing the cavity varnish. It was concluded that burnishing is not a factor in microleakage when using Optaloy, but microleakage can be reduced by the use of a cavity liner such as Copalite.