Abstract:
Self-etching dentine bonding agents are a recent addition to the choice of bonding agents which a clinician has available to bond resin restorations to tooth structure. The so-called ‘traditional’, total-etch fourth and fifth generation dentine bonding agents have proven their clinical abilities and the question now remains whether these ‘new’ self-etching dentine bonding agents will clinically perform as well as the ‘proven’ total-etch dentine bonding agents. For the purpose of this dissertation the author completed three research projects which were performed to evaluate the efficacy of a selection of dentine bonding agents and then used the results to compare some properties (shear bond strength, microleakage, and anti-bacterial properties) of total-etch dentine bonding agents with some self-etching dentine bonding agents. All discussions will focus on the three dentine bonding agent properties evaluated by the three research projects performed. The three specific aims of this study were: <ul> <li> To compare the dentine shear bond strength of a selection of self-etching dentine bonding agents with that of a total-etch dentine bonding agent control.</li> <li> To compare dentine and enamel microleakage values of a selection of self-etching bonding agents with that of a total-etch dentine bonding agent control.</li> <li> To evaluate the possible anti-bacterial properties of a selection of dentine bonding agents, with focus placed on the self-etching dentine bonding agent ABFb (Clearfil Protect Bond).</li></ul> The studies performed by the author achieved comparative/similar results to some studies described in the literature but it is clear from the literature that some studies provide conflicting results, especially leakage of enamel margins when using self-etching bonding agents. Taking into consideration the limitations of the three studies performed, it can be concluded that as far as the three evaluated properties of self-etching dentine bonding agents are concerned, they should prove to be acceptable clinical alternatives for use in place of total-etch dentine bonding agents. Copyright
