The immediate bonding effectiveness of contemporary adhesives is quite favorable, regardless of the approach used. In the long term, the bonding effectiveness of some adhesives drops dramatically, whereas the bond strengths of other adhesives are more stable. This review examines the fundamental processes that cause the adhesion of biomaterials to enamel and dentin to degrade with time. Non-carious class V clinical trials remain the ultimate test method for the assessment of bonding effectiveness, but in addition to being high-cost, they are time- and labor-consuming, and they provide little information on the true cause of clinical failure. Therefore, several laboratory protocols were developed to predict bond durability. This paper critically appraises methodologies that focus on chemical degradation patterns of hydrolysis and elution of interface components, as well as mechanically oriented test set-ups, such as fatigue and fracture toughness measurements. A correlation of in vitro and in vivo data revealed that, currently, the most validated method to assess adhesion durability involves aging of micro-specimens of biomaterials bonded to either enamel or dentin. After about 3 months, all classes of adhesives exhibited mechanical and morphological evidence of degradation that resembles in vivo aging effects. A comparison of contemporary adhesives revealed that the three-step etch-and-rinse adhesives remain the 'gold standard' in terms of durability. Any kind of simplification in the clinical application procedure results in loss of bonding effectiveness. Only the two-step self-etch adhesives approach the gold standard and do have some additional clinical benefits.

http://www.endoexperience.com/documents/DeMunketalDurabiltyofadhesionJDR.pdf

A Critical Review of the Durability of Adhesion to Tooth Tissue: Methods and Results

Bonding to tooth tissue can be achieved through an "etch&rinse," "self-etch" or "glass-ionomer" approach. In this paper, the basic bonding mechanism to enamel and dentin of these three approaches is demonstrated by means of ultramorphological and chemical characterization of tooth-biomaterial interfacial interactions. Furthermore, bond-strength testing and measurement of marginal-sealing effectiveness (the two most commonly employed methodologies to determine "bonding effectiveness" in the laboratory) are evaluated upon their value and relevance in predicting clinical performance. A new dynamic methodology to test biomaterial-tooth bonds in a fatigue mode is introduced with a recently developed micro-rotary fatigue-testing device. Eventually, today's adhesives will be critically weighted upon their performance in diverse laboratory studies and clinical trials. Special attention has been given to the benefits/drawbacks of an etch&rinse versus a self-etch approach and the long-term performance of these adhesives. Correlating data gathered in the laboratory with clinical results clearly showed that laboratory research CAN predict clinical effectiveness. Although there is a tendency to simplify bonding procedures, the data presented confirm that conventional three-step etch&rinse adhesives still perform most favorably and are most reliable in the long-term. Nevertheless, a self-etch approach may have the best future perspective. Clinically, when adhesives no longer require an "etch&rinse" step, the application time, and probably more importantly, the technique-sensitivity are substantially reduced. Especially "mild," two-step self-etch adhesives that bond through a combined micromechanical and chemical interaction with tooth tissue closely approach conventional three-step systems in bonding performance.

Buonocore memorial lecture, adhesion to enamel and dentin: current status and future challenges

Systematic review of the chemical composition of contemporary dental adhesives

Dental adhesion review: Aging and stability of the bonded interface

http://webdelprofesor.ula.ve/odontologia/robertramirez/PDF/1.pdf

State of the art of self-etch adhesives

Correlative morphologic and chemical interfacial characterization of tooth-biomaterial interactions

Self-etching primer: current status and its evolution

Bisphenol A release from short-term degraded resin-based dental materials.

Zirconia implants are appreciated in some clinical indications in light of their aesthetic appearance and good biocompatibility. The aim of this work was to evaluate the performance of a newly developed two-piece zirconia/polyether ketone ketone (PEKK) implant-abutment combination after long-term cyclic loading in a hydrothermal environment, using a new protocol adapted from two available ISO standards. Sixteen implants (n = 8/group) were embedded according to ISO 14801 and divided into two groups: implants in the Observational Group (OG) were cyclically loaded for 60 days (98 N, 10 million loading cycles, 2 Hz) in 85 °C water in a chewing simulator, while non-loaded/non-aged implants (as-received) constituted the Control Group (CG). After 4.7 million loading cycles, one OG implant fractured in the chewing simulator. The surviving implants were compared to CG implants by X-ray diffraction (XRD) to investigate potential ageing as suggested by ISO 13356, but also μ-Raman spectroscopy, Focused-Ion-Beam - Scanning-Electron-Microscopy (FIB-SEM), and load-to-fracture. Ageing was shown to have limited influence on the evaluated zirconia implant, with increased monoclinic content after loading/ageing being to a shallow transformed zone of ~2 μm at the implant surface. However, OG implants showed a significantly decreased fracture load of 751 ± 231 N (CG: 995 ± 161 N; p = .046). These values enable clinical application, but the fact that one failure was recorded during cyclic fatigue along with the significant decrease in strength after cyclic loading/ageing suggest that there may be room for further optimization of especially the PEKK abutment. Furthermore, good agreement was observed between the fracture modes of the implant that failed during the cyclic fatigue experiment and the in vivo failure of one implant during pre-clinical trials, validating the interest of the in vitro protocol used in this work to check the reliability of zirconia implant.

Bart Van Meerbeek

Papers

Correlative morphologic and chemical interfacial characterization of tooth-biomaterial interactions

Self-etching primer: current status and its evolution

Bisphenol A release from short-term degraded resin-based dental materials.

Reliability of an injection-moulded two-piece zirconia implant with PEKK abutment after long-term thermo-mechanical loading

Five-year Clinical Effectiveness of Two Three-step Total-etch Adhesives and Two Composites in Cervical Lesions