Retention of restorations placed in noncarious cervical lesions after centric and eccentric occlusal loading in a chewing simulator--A pilot study.

PURPOSE: To evaluate in a pilot study whether (1) loading of restored teeth in a chewing simulator is an adequate method to reproduce clinical data about the retention rate of restorations placed in noncarious cervical lesions by means of the one-step self-etching adhesive system Prompt-L-Pop, and (2) whether eccentric loading contributes to the loss of Class V fillings. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 12 extracted mandibular premolars with noncarious buccal cervical lesions of similar dimensions, restorations were placed without preparation using Prompt-L-Pop and Tetric Ceram. The adhesive was applied in one layer and cured at 650 mW/cm2 for 10 s, while the composite was placed in two increments and cured at 1200 mW/cm2 for 10 s. After storage in water at 37 degrees C for 7 days, the teeth were mounted in a chewing simulator that uses pneumatic cylinders as force actuators and subjected to a centric load of 50 N and 1,200,000 load cycles at a frequency of 1.6 Hz and simultaneously to 3125 thermocycles (5 degrees C/55 degrees C). The antagonists were standardized and made of Empress ceramic material. Every 100,000 load cycles, the fillings were evaluated with regard to retention. In the second phase, the same teeth were loaded on the lingual cusps with new antagonists for another 1,200,000 cycles. RESULTS: Neither during centric nor eccentric loading was any restoration loss observed. CONCLUSION: The short-term loading of extracted teeth with Class V fillings in a chewing simulator was inadequate to reproduce the data of clinical studies on the retention rate of a self-etching adhesive system. Obviously, long-term degradation mechanisms (eg, hydrolysis) acting on the composite/dentin interface play a more crucial role when it comes to the loss of retention of Class V restorations. Eccentric loading alone did not contribute to the loss of fillings, so that the theory--which maintains that this type of occlusal stress is a major cause for abfractions or the retention loss of restorations placed in abfraction lesions--may be questioned.