Adhesion to dentin by means of Gluma resin

In its present version, the Gluma system for bonding restorative resin to dentin involves the application of an enamel bonding agent prior to the composite resin. Conceivably, pretreating the dentin with solutions of amino acids, and incorporating camphorquinone and selected methacrylic monomers into the Gluma adhesive would nullify the need for the enamel bonding agent. A bond strength to dentin of 13.4 MPa was obtained in the control experiment. Using a solution of pyruvic acid and glycine as pretreatment, and an optimized adhesive mixture containing glutaraldehyde, HEMA, BIS-GMA, camphorquinone, and water, bond strengths to dentin of 14.5 MPa and to enamel of 23.3 MPa were obtained. Thus, the new Gluma bonding system gave acceptable bond strengths without the prior application of enamel bonding agents.