Adaptation of resinous restorative materials to acid etched enamel surfaces

— The purpose of this paper was to study by means of scanning electron (SEM) and optical microscopy the adaptation of the low-viscous non-composite Nuva-Seal(r) and of the three high-viscous composite restorative materials Adaptic(r), Compocap(r) and Concise(r) to phosphoric acid etched enamel surfaces from symmetric areas of pairs of contralateral human permanent anterior teeth. The SEM study demonstrated that the two types of material equally well reproduce the details of the enamel surface; the light microscopic observations showed that the length and shape of resin tags in the enamel surface are independent of the materials examined. The observations seem to allow the conclusion that bonding of composite restorative resins to phosphoric acid etched enamel surfaces is not conditioned by the employment of an intermediate film of a low-viscous non-composite resin.