Polymerization Kinetics, Shrinkage Stress, and Bond Strength to Dentin of Conventional and Self-adhesive Resin Cements

Purpose: To evaluate the kinetics of polymerization and shrinkage stress of resin cements, as well as their bond strength to dentin after 24-h or one-year water storage.
Materials and Methods: Three conventional resin cements were evaluated: RelyX Ultimate (RUL), Panavia V5 (PNV), and Multilink N (MLN); and three self-adhesive resin cements: RelyX Unicem 2 (RUN), Panavia SA Cement Plus (PSA), and G-CEM LinkAce (GCL). Degree of conversion (DC), maximum polymerization rate (RPmax) and gel time values were obtained using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR/ATR). Shrinkage stress values were determined with a tensiometer, using a universal testing machine (n=5). Indirect resin composite restorations (Solidex) were fabricated and cemented to the dentin surface using self-adhesive resin cements, or conventional resin cements with self-etching adhesive (n=5). Bonding performance was evaluated with the microtensile bond strength (µTBS) test after 24 h or one year of water storage.
Results: MLN exhibited a higher DC (76.7%), whereas the percentage of other materials differed slightly (ranging from 54% to 58.5%). The RPmax and shrinkage stress values differed significantly between the cements. PSA showed the longest gel time. Significantly higher µTBS were observed for conventional resin cements after 24-h and one-year storage; a decrease in µTBS was observed for MLN only.
Conclusion: Self-adhesive resin cements may not perform as well as conventional resin cements. Although both categories of cements presented similar polymerization kinetics and shrinkage values, the self-adhesive resin cements showed lower µTBS compared to those of conventional resin cements. Nevertheless, storage time only affected the bonding performance of MLN.