Effects of Artificial Saliva Contamination on the Bond Strength of Three Dentin Adhesives to Dentin of Primary Teeth

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of artificial saliva contamination and decontamination procedures at different stages of a bonding procedure on the microtensile bond strength (MTBS) of two one-step self-etch adhesives and a two-step total-etch adhesive to dentin of primary teeth. Forty-two extracted sound primary molars were randomly divided into three groups depending on three adhesives, Scotchbond Universal Adhesive (SBU), All-Bond Universal (ABU) and Prime & Bond NT (PNT). For each adhesive, the teeth were allocated into seven groups. Except for control group, group 1, the groups were contaminated with artificial saliva at three different stages: the groups 2 and 3 before adhesive application; the groups 4 and 5 before adhesive polymerization; the groups 6 and 7 after adhesive polymerization. Decontaminating procedures were rinsing, air-drying (group 2, 4, 6) and air-drying (group 3, 5, 7). The specimens were restored with composite resin (Filtek, Z350) and microtensile bond strength was measured. The data was analyzed with one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD test (p < 0.05). In the control group, using PNT resulted in significantly higher bond strength than when ABU and SBU were used (p < 0.001). For three adhesives, the groups 2, 4 and 6 had greater bond strength than the groups 3, 5 and 7. Also, when the artificial saliva was contaminated before adhesive polymerization (group 4, 5), it showed a significantly lower bond strength. Generally the two-step total-etch adhesive generated a higher bond strength than the one-step self-etch adhesive. Artificial saliva contamination before adhesive polymerization led to a drastic decrease in bond strength, and rinsing with water followed by air-drying could not recover the bond strength.