Marginal microleakage at the adhesive bonding interface submitted to storage in water, chemical aging or thermocycling
Purpose: The aim of this in vitro study was to evaluate the marginal microleakage of the dentin/resin interface when subjected to water storage, chemical aging, or thermocycling in different adhesive luting treatments.
Materials and Methods: Bovine teeth were used to prepare dentin blocks (5 × 4 × 1 mm) with one fully exposed dentin surface (n = 45). The blocks were randomly assigned to three luting protocols: 2BSE+DRC (two-bottle self-etch adhesive + dual-curing resin cement); SAP+PRC (self-adhesive primer + photo-activated dual resin cement); and SAP+SRC+O (self-adhesive primer + self-cured dual resin cement + Oxyguard II). Composite resin blocks of the same dimensions were luted onto the dentin blocks according to each protocol. Each treatment group (n = 15) was subdivided into three subgroups (n = 5) based on the aging challenge: storage in water for 7 days (control), aging in 10% sodium hypochlorite solution for 1 hour, or thermocycling for 5,000 cycles. Specimens were then individually immersed in a neutral methylene blue solution for 1 hour, rinsed with water, air-dried, and analyzed for marginal microleakage.
Results: Data analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey’s test (α = 0.05) showed that 2BSE+DRC exhibited the lowest microleakage after water storage for 7 days (100 µm) and the highest after thermocycling (220 µm), while sodium hypochlorite aging resulted in an intermediate value (190 µm). SAP+PRC and SAP+SRC+O showed no statistically significant differences in microleakage when stored in water (170 µm and 620 µm, respectively) or after sodium hypochlorite aging (180 µm and 610 µm, respectively). SAP+SRC+O resulted in significantly greater microleakage in water storage (620 µm) and sodium hypochlorite aging (610 µm) compared to 2BSE+DRC (100 µm and 190 µm, respectively) and SAP+PRC (170 µm and 180 µm, respectively). Thermocycling produced significant differences among the three treatments (p < 0.05), with SAP+SRC+O showing the highest microleakage (1,370 µm), 2BSE+DRC the lowest (220 µm), and SAP+PRC an intermediate value (810 µm).
Conclusion: Adhesive luting treatments exhibited different levels of marginal microleakage when subjected to water storage, chemical aging, or thermocycling. Thermocycling resulted in the highest marginal microleakage at the dentin/resin interface for all adhesive protocols tested.