Bonding of Simplified Adhesive Systems to Caries-affected Dentin of Primary Teeth

Purpose: To evaluate the bonding of simplified adhesive systems to sound and caries-affected dentin of primary teeth with microtensile (µTBS) and nanoleakage (NL) tests. Materials and Methods: Occlusal cavities were prepared in 36 sound second primary molars. Half of the specimens were submitted to pH cycling to simulate caries-affected dentin. Teeth were randomly restored with one of three materials: the etch-and-rinse adhesive system Adper Single Bond 2 (SB), the two-step self-etching adhesive system Adper SE Plus (SE), and the one-step self-etching adhesive system Adper Easy One (EASY). After storage for 24 h, specimens with cross-sectional areas of 0.8 mm2 were prepared for microtensile testing (1 mm/min). One stick from each tooth was immersed in silver nitrate solution (24 h) and allowed to develop for 8 h in order to score the nanoleakage with SEM. The fracture pattern was evaluated using a stereomicroscope (400X). The µTBS means were analyzed by two-way ANOVA and Tukey's post-hoc test. For NL, the Kruskal- Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests were used (α 0.05). Results: SB (35.5 ± 3.5) showed the highest µTBS value to sound dentin, followed by EASY (26.3 ± 1.9) and SE (18.2 ± 6.5) (p 0.05). No difference among materials was observed for caries-affected dentin (SB: 17.8 ± 4.2; SE: 13.9 ± 3.2; EASY: 14.4 ± 4.2, p > 0.05). For all groups, adhesive/mixed fracture prevailed. Cariesaffected dentin promoted silver nitrate uptake into the adhesive interface; however, with SE, the nanoleakage was more pronounced than in the other adhesive systems, even in sound dentin. Conclusion: Caries-affected dentin negatively influences the bond strength and nanoleakage of the two-step etch-and-rinse and one-step self-etching adhesive systems tested in primary teeth. Keywords: microtensile, bond strength, caries-affected dentin, nanoleakage, primary teeth