Does the Period of Air-Drying Affect Dentin Bond Strength of Different Adhesive Systems?

Aims: To evaluate the effect of air-drying time of adhesives on shear bond strength of different adhesive systems.
Methodology: The occlusal surfaces of 175 mandibular third molars were ground to obtain flat dentin surfaces and then divided into three groups according to three adhesive systems used: (1) Conventional three-step adhesive (Scotchbond Multi-purpose Plus); 2) Self-etch adhesive (Adper Easy Bond) and 3) Single bottle self-etch adhesive (Scotchbond Universal adhesive). Regarding the application of adhesives before resin composite application, it was gently air-dried for 3 s in Groups 1, whereas, the adhesive was left wet in Group 2. The group 3, that was air-dried until the liquid did not move (5 s), was served as control. Following bonding of resin cement (Filtek Supreme) to dentin, the specimens were light cured for 20s with a LED. After storage in water at 37ºC for one week, the strength measurements were accomplished with universal testing machine (Lloyd LRX) until the failure occurs. Failure modes were examined using a stereomicroscope and scanning electron microscope. The data were analyzed with two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and TukeyHSD tests (α=0.05).
Results: The two-way ANOVA revealed that adhesive systems had a significant effect on shear bond strength values (p<0.001). However, air-drying time did not influence shear bond strength (p=0.442). Additionally, there was no interaction effect between adhesive systems and air-drying time (p=0.835).
Conclusion: The data suggests that increased air-drying time of adhesives does not significantly affect bond strength.