ADHESION TESTING OF DENTIN BONDING AGENTS - A REVIEW

Adhesion testing of dentin bonding agents was reviewed starting with t he adhesion substrate, dentin, the variables involved in etching, prim ing and bonding, storage variables and testing variables. Several rece nt reports attempting to standardize many of these variables were disc ussed. Recent advances in the development of new bonding systems have resulted in bond strengths on the order of 20-30 MPa. At these high bo nd strengths, most of the bond failure modes have been cohesive in den tin. As this precludes measurement of interfacial bond strength, new t esting methods must be developed. One such new method, a microtensile method, was described along with preliminary results that have been ob tained. The last decade has produced major advances in dentin bonding. The next decade should prove to be even more exciting.