Fatigue behaviour of different dentin adhesives

The aim of this in vitro study was to compare quasistatic and cyclic fatigue dentin bond strength of modern adhesive systems representing different generations. One hundred and fifty cavities were made in discs of freshly extracted human third molars and filled with direct resin composite restorations. Dentin adhesives of different generations (SY = Syntac Classic, multi-step system with self-etching primer; SE = Syntac Classic with additional phosphoric acid etching prior to application of the self-etching primer; SB = Scotchbond Multi-Purpose Plus, multi-step system with total etching; PE = PrimeBond 2.1, single-step system with and without [PB] total etching) were used in combination with one hybrid composite. After 21 days of storage, 10 specimens for each adhesive system were subjected to thermocycling (1150 cycles) for 24 h and were afterwards debonded in a push-out test. Another 20 specimens were tested with cyclic fatigue according to the staircase method with 5000 cycles for each specimen. Static and cyclic push-out bond strengths, respectively, for each group were (MPa): SY 16.9 +/- 0.9 and 14.2 +/- 1.7, SE 17.5 +/- 1.8 and 14.8 +/- 3.4, SB 18.5 +/- 1.7 and 13.9 +/- 2.1, PB 14.6 +/- 2.2 and 7.2 +/- 2.4, PE 13.4 +/- 2.2 and 6.8 +/- 1.8. Both quasistatic and dynamic bond strengths revealed better values for the multi-step systems (P0.05). All adhesive systems tested revealed a significant fatigue behaviour which was more pronounced for the one-bottle system with a decrease of about 50% independent of additional dentin etching.