Hydrolytic degradation of silorane- and methacrylate-based composite restorations: Evaluation of push-out strength and marginal adaptation

Objectives. This study compared the hydrolytic degradation of composite restorations based on methacrylate and silorane systems regarding bond strength and marginal adaptation. Materials and methods. Sixty bovine incisors were ground flat to obtain a 2-mm thick slice in which conical preparations were made. The specimens were randomly distributed into four groups (n = 15) according to the restorative system (silorane-Filtek LS/P90 adhesive; methacrylate-Filtek P60/Adper Easy Bond) and the degradation protocol (control: immediate evaluation; hydrolytic degradation: 6 months storage in water at 37 degrees C). Marginal adaptation was evaluated using a dye staining technique. Digital images of the stained gaps were obtained to calculate the marginal gap (%), the ratio between the stained margins and the total length of the margin. Push-out bond strength test was conducted (0.5 mm/min). Marginal adaptation data was submitted to Kruskal-Wallis test and the bond strength data to two-way ANOVA/Tukey's test (alpha = 0.05). Results. The marginal adaptation was neither affected by the restorative system nor by the degradation protocol, although the number of perfect sealed reduced after 6 months. No significance was observed among the groups. No significance was noted between the silorane- and the methacrylate-based restorations for immediate bond strength. After the hydrolytic degradation, the silorane system showed higher bond strength then the methacrylate restorations. Conclusion. The silorane and methacrylate restorative systems produce restorations with similar immediate interfacial quality and 6 months of water storage does not cause significant bonding degradation for both systems. The silorane restorations show an increase in the bond strength after 6 months.