Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of prior acid etching on the enamel bond strengths of single-step self-etch adhesive systems to bovine enamel by means of measurement of shear bond strength, fracture mode, and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) observations of the treated enamel surfaces and resin-enamel interface. The null hypothesis to be tested was that prior acid etching would not affect the bond strength to bovine enamel.