comparison of the dentin bond strength of two self-etch adhesives after prolonged air-drying and additional light-curing

Objectives: it has been reported that the water, solvents, or the primer incorporated into adhesive resins decrease the polymerization, compromise the mechanical properties, reduce the bond strength, and lead to a poor bonding performance of self-etch adhesives. this article evaluated the effect of air-drying and light-curing duration of self-etch adhesives on the micro-shear bond strength between composite resin and dentin.materials and methods: a total of 120 extracted sound human third molars were randomly divided into twelve groups (n=10). the occlusal dentin in each tooth was exposed. clearfil se bond (cseb) and clearfil s3 bond (cs3b) were used according to the manufacturer’s instructions, followed by air-drying for 3 and 10 seconds in different groups. the adhesives were light-cured for 10, 20 and 40 seconds in different subgroups. next, the composite resin (clearfil ap-x) was placed on the dentin surface and was polymerized for 40 seconds. the micro-shear bond strength values were determined using a universal testing machine, and the results were statistically analyzed by three-way anova and tukey's post-hoc test (α=0.05).results: cseb exhibited a significantly higher dentin bond strength than cs3b. increasing the curing time of cseb resulted in an increase in the bond strength, whereas an increase in the air-drying time did not affect the bond strength of the two adhesives.conclusions: within the limitations of this study, an increase in the curing time improved the bond strength of cseb, whereas the air-drying time did not affect the bond strength of the evaluated adhesives.