Effect of operator variability on microleakage with different adhesive systems

Objective: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of operator variability on microleakage with different adhesive systems. Materials and Methods: A total of 180 standardized Class V cavities were prepared on facial and lingual of 90 extracted human premolar teeth and randomly assigned to five groups according to the adhesive systems used ( n = 36): Prime and Bond NT (PB), Single Bond (SB), Futura Bond NR, Xeno III (XE) and Adper Prompt-L-Pop (LP). The adhesive groups were then further subdivided into three operator groups according to level of clinical experience ( n = 12): An undergraduate student, a research assistant and a faculty member. All cavities were restored with same composite resin. The restored teeth were thermocycled (500 cycles, 5-55°C) then immersed in 0.5% basic fuchsin and measured for leakage under a stereomicroscope. Statistical analyses were performed with the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. Results: Significant inter-operator variation was found in the enamel margins in the XE group with significantly higher microleakage when used by the undergraduate student ( P P > 0.05), significant differences were observed between PB and LP, PB and XE, SB and LP and SB and XE in the enamel margins for the undergraduate student ( P Conclusion: Microleakage of adhesive systems is more dependent on interactions between the operator and adhesive material than on the choice of adhesive material.