Influence of radiant exposure on degree of conversion, water sorption and solubility of self-etch adhesives

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the radiant exposure on the degree of C=C conversion (DC), water sorption (WS), and solubility (S) of the Clearfil SE Bond (CSE) and Filtek LS (LS) self-etch adhesive systems. The primer of the LS (LSP), and bond agents of the CSE (CSEB) and LS (LSB) were tested. Specimens were light-cured using a light-emitting diode (LED) at different radiant exposures (6.1, 12.2, 13.9, and 27.8 J/cm2). DC (n=10) was measured using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). WS and S were determined according to ISO 4049. Data were subjected to two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test at pre-set alpha of 0.05. The highest DC was exhibited by LSP, followed by CSEB and LSB, all with statistical difference (p<0.001). The DC was increased with higher radiant exposure and extended light-curing time (p<0.001). LSB and CSEB showed the lower WS followed by LSP, all with statistical difference (p<0.001). CSEB and LSB presented no significance difference on the S values (p>0.05) and were lower than LSP (p≤0.05). The WS and S were not influenced by the different radiant exposures evaluated (p=0.9548 and p>0.05, respectively). The monomer conversion is related to improvement on the mechanical properties of resinous material, but these properties also depend on the polymer network structure formed.