Adhesion of dental sealants to enamel with self-etching adhesives in salivary contamination conditions: Influence of the light curing protocol

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of the light curing protocol in the shear bond strength of a sealant to enamel treated with two self-etching adhesive systems, in salivary contamination conditions. Materials and Methods: The dental sealant (Delton, Dentsply) was applied, after saliva contamination, onto the vestibular enamel of sixty human incisors treated with Xeno III (Dentsply) or Prompt-L-Pop (3M/Espe). These two groups were further divided into two subgroups (n = 15) according to the curing time: 1) the adhesive system was cured with the sealant (co-polymerization), and 2) adhesive and sealant were light cured independently (independent polymerization). After the adhesive procedures, specimens were stored in water (37. °C-24. h) and thermal-cycled. Shear bond strength tests were done in an universal testing machine. Data was analyzed with two-way ANOVA. Results: There were no statistical differences (p = 0.267) between the adhesive systems tested. The co-polymerization groups (33.3 ± 9.4. MPa) yielded statistically higher shear bond strength values than the independent polymerization groups (28.2 ± 4.7. MPa). Even with saliva contamination, the self-etching adhesive systems used yielded high shear bond strength values. Conclusions: In the conditions tested, the co-polymerization of the adhesive systems with the sealant led to higher bond strength values to enamel than the independent polymerization.