Sealing capacity of a photochromatic flowable composite as protective base in nonvital dental bleaching

AIM: To evaluate microleakage of a flowable composite used as a protective isolating base, applied with different adhesive systems. METHODOLOGY: Seventy root-filled teeth were divided into seven groups. A flowable composite base (Tetric Flow Chroma) was used with three adhesive techniques (Syntac, Excite, Excite DCS; in the three cases with and without acid etching) and in a control group without dentine conditioning or adhesive placement. A 30% hydrogen peroxide solution was applied for 24 h in the pulp chambers, followed by the placement of a dye (silver nitrate) for 4 h. Each tooth was sectioned longitudinally, and examined under 4x magnification to assess the tooth/restoration dye leakage following a four-degree scale. Percentage of dye penetration was registered. Statistical analysis was made through the Tukey and Mann-Whitney U-tests. RESULTS: Maximum leakage (100% of specimens) was recorded in the control group without an adhesive system. In the groups subjected to acid etching, the percentage of leakage corresponded to Excite DSC (10%), followed by Syntac (20%) and Excite (30%). In the groups in which only an adhesive system was used, 50% of the teeth demonstrated dye leakage. Statistically significant differences in terms of leakage were observed between the control group and the experimental groups (P < 0.05). There were no significant differences among the experimental groups, but comparing the leakage percentages obtained between the groups in which the teeth were subjected to prior acid etching, and those in which no etching was carried out, observed differences were significant (P = 0.04). CONCLUSIONS: There were no significant differences between the adhesive systems in terms of leakage. Acid etching significantly reduced leakage.