Background and objective: Glass ionomer cements (GICs) are the most commonly used restorative material in pediatric dentistry. They have numerous advantages; however, they show some marginal microleakage at the restoration-tooth interface. Various conditioning agents have been tested for alteration or dissolution of smear layer which has been attributed to the occurrence of microleakage; however, very limited studies have been done using primary teeth.
Aims: To evaluate and compare the effect of 10% polyacrylic acid and 17% EDTA on marginal microleakage of high-viscosity GIC.
Settings and design: Experimental, in vitro study.
Methodology: Class V cavities of standardized dimensions were prepared on 60 primary anterior teeth and were randomly divided into three groups. Except Group I, the cavities of Groups II and III were conditioned with 10% polyacrylic acid and 17% EDTA, respectively. All the 60 teeth were then restored with high-viscosity GIC. The samples were thermocycled and immersed in methylene blue solution for 24 h. The teeth were removed from the stain, rinsed, and sectioned buccolingually and were observed under stereomicroscope at 30× to score the marginal microleakage.
Statistical analysis used: Kruskal-Wallis test followed by Mann-Whitney post hoc analysis were used to compare the mean marginal leakage scores between the three study groups.
Results: Statistical significance difference was found between all the three groups (P < 0.05). The mean marginal microleakage score was maximum for Group I (control group; 3.00), whereas it was the least for Group II (1.30) where 10% polyacrylic was used for conditioning the cavity surface.
Conclusion: Among the study groups, none of them was completely devoid of microleakage in all its samples. 10% polyacrylic acid emerged as a better conditioning agent when compared with 17% EDTA in altering or removing the smear layer thereby resulting in better adhesion.
Keywords: Adhesion; adhesive restorative materials; conditioning agents; smear layer.