Effect of saliva contamination on micromorphological adaptation of single-bottle adhesives to etched enamel.

: This study explored the topography of the interface of composite resin bonded with four single-bottle adhesives and enamel under salivary contaminated conditions. Prime & Bond 2.1, One Step, Tenure Quik and Syntac Single Component were evaluated. Thirty six sound molars were divided into three subgroups for each of the four adhesives. Small flat areas on the buccal and lingual surface were wet ground in enamel. The adhesives were tested under: uncontaminated condition (Group 1), contamination of the bonding site with fresh whole saliva for 20 seconds (Group 2) and rinsing the saliva for 20 seconds before adhesive application and after enamel etching (Group 3). After adhesive application button of composite resin was applied and light cured. The roots of the teeth were removed and the crowns with the bonded composite immersed in HCl acid till the composite resin buttons become free of enamel. The buttons were immersed in NaC10(4) and prepared for SEM examination. The bonding surface of the composite resin buttons revealed the formation of resin tags reflecting the different etching pattern of enamel. Saliva contamination either washed or unwashed did not affected the resin tags formation except for Syntac Single Component with contaminated unwashed enamel. The clinical significance of this in vitro research was that saliva contamination did not affect the resin tags formation of Prime & Bond 2.1, One Step, and Tenure Quick. For Syntac Single Component, only contaminated unwashed enamel decreased resin tags formation.