From Buonocore's Pioneering Acid-Etch Technique to Self-Adhering Restoratives. A Status Perspective of Rapidly Advancing Dental Adhesive Technology.

TLDR

This opinion paper surveys the rapid evolution of dental adhesive technology, outlining fourteen key factors that define its current status and proposing future directions toward self‑adhesive restorative materials. It critically examines past and present bonding techniques to enamel and dentin, detailing adhesion mechanisms, the adhesion‑decalcification concept, adhesive classification, degradation pathways, and strategies for bond stability, including the pros and cons of universal adhesives.

Abstract

This literature-based OPINION PAPER reflects in an introductory historical perspective on the rapid advancement of dental adhesive technology. Past and current techniques to bond to tooth tissue, in particular to dentin as the most challenging bonding substrate, are critically appraised. Including the historical perspective in (1), this paper focuses on fourteen items thought to be of primary importance with regard to the current status of dental adhesive technology. In (2) the primary mechanisms involved in adhesion to enamel and especially dentin are dealt with having (3) also revisited the previously introduced adhesion-decalcification concept (AD concept) as basis of biomaterial-hard tissue interaction; the worldwide accepted classification of today's adhesives into etchr nomination of the GOLD-STANDARD ER (11) description of the main bond-degradation pathways and eight strategies to preserve bond stability; (12) coverage of the PROS and CONS of the newest generation of UNIVERSAL adhesives. Looking into the future, some expected future developments in dental adhesive technology have been suggested in (13), along with (14) a first status determination of the latest research-and-development towards self-adhesive restorative materials that no longer require any pre-treatment.