Study on bond strength of self-etching primer systems

Abstract

We evaluated the bond strength to enamel and dentin of two self-etching primer systems [UniFil Bond (GC) and Fluorobond (Shofu)]. Composite resins were bonded to polished enamel and dentin surfaces obtained from bovine teeth. Tensile bond strength was assessed at a cross head speed of 0.03 mm/min after 24h in 37℃ H_2O or after thermocycling 5000 times between 5℃ and 55℃ in H_2O. Although these systems exhibited good bond strength after 24 hours, the strength degraded after thermocycling,especially with enamel. This suggests that enamel etching is desirable with these systems.