Microtensile versus microshear bond strength between dental adhesives and the dentin substrate

This study evaluated the performance of different bonding tests on the bond strength of three adhesive systems to dentin. Forty-eight bovine incisors were used in the study, which were allocated in two groups according to the bond strength test performed: microtensile (µTBS) or microshear (µSBS). Also, each group was divided in three subgroups according to the adhesive system applied: Single Bond (SB), Prime & Bond (PB) and XP Bond (XPB) (n=8). The teeth were prepared according to each bond strength test protocol, and then the specimens were tested in an universal testing machine (EMIC). The data were submitted to two-way ANOVA (bond strength test and adhesive system type factors) and Tukey's post hoc test (α=0.05). The µTBS results were higher for all the adhesives when compared to the µSBS ones. Within the µTBS results, SB showed higher bond strength than PB and XPB, which showed similar adhesive performance among each other; within the µSBS results, all the adhesives presented similar bond strength values to dentin. The µTBS test detected differences between the adhesive systems evaluated; in contrast, the µSBS test was less discriminating in evaluating the adhesive performance of the materials tested.