Influence of drying time and temperature on bond strength of contemporary adhesives to dentine

Objectives: To evaluate the bond strength (mu TBS) of self-etching adhesives in different solvent evaporation conditions. Methods: Flat dentine surfaces from extracted human third molars were bonded with: (1) 2 two-steps self-etching adhesives (Clearfil SE Bond-CSEB); (Protect Bond-PB) and (2) 2 one-step self-etch systems (Adper Prompt L Pop-ADPLP); (Xeno III-XIII). Bonded dentine surfaces were air-dried for 5 s, 20 s, 30 s or 40 s at either 21 degrees C or 38 degrees C. Composite build-ups were constructed incrementally. After storage in water for 24 h at 37 degrees C, the specimens were prepared for microtensile bond strength testing. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls at alpha = 0.05. Results: CSEB and PB performed better at warm temperature with only 20 s of air-blowing. The bond strength increased when XIII was performed at warm temperature at 40 s air-blowing. Extended air-blowing not affect the performance of ADPLP, except at 30 s air-blowing time at warm temperature. Conclusions: The use of a warm air-dry stream seems to be a clinical tool to improve the bond strength to self-etching adhesives. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.