Chemical aspects of self-etching enamel-dentin adhesives: A systematic review

Objectives: The paper gives an overview on the components and the Dental adhesives; polymer chemical aspects of currently used self-etching enamel-dentin primers/adhesives. In addition, the contribution of new adhesives monomers and cross-linkers exhibiting enhanced hydrolytic stability than methacrylates to improve the performance of single-bottle adhesives is discussed. Sources: Information from original scientific papers or reviews about enamel-dentin adhesives, the patent literature concerning dental adhesives and manufacturer information of commercial self-etching adhesives were included in this review. Data: The most efficient self-etching enamel-dentin adhesives are based on strongly acidic adhesive monomers, containing dihydrogenphosphate, phosphonic acids or carboxylic acid groups. Serious problems of single-bottle water-based, strongly acidic self-etching enamel-dentin adhesives arise both from the hydrolytic instability of the methacrylate monomers used and the side reaction of the applied initiator components. Conclusions: The stability of the self-etching enamel-dentin adhesives can be improved by using new acrylic ether phosphonic acids or mono- or difunctional acrytamides, while more stable and compatible components have to be developed in the future. (c) 2005 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.