12 Month Clinical Data on Dental Bonding Agents

Here is a study Kerr commissioned. What is interesting is that 7th generation bonding came out as good as the Gold Standard of 5th generation bonding protocol. MJ

Dr. Bart Van Meerbeek, professor in biomaterial sciences at the conservative dentistry department of the Catholic University in Leuven, Belgium, is largely considered by many to be one of the world’s foremost experts on the science of bonding in dentistry, so new data and findings from him tend to resonate on a global level.

He and his team at Catholic University recently conducted a clinical evaluation involving 240 Class V restorations, using OptiBond XTRand OptiBond FL.

The Study

For the evaluation, four clinicians, including Dr. Van Meerbeek, placed 240 Class V restorations in 50 patients, following a paired-tooth design. The number of restorations with OptiBond XTR was 121, and the number with OptiBond FL was 118. The restorations were evaluated the first time approximately one week after placement, a second time at three months, a third time at six months, and a fourth and final time at one year.

Color slides were used to evaluate the restorations preoperatively and at each postoperative stage.

The evaluation criteria were:

• Aesthetic properties
• Functional properties
• Biological properties

The involved teeth were upper and lower incisors, canines, premolars, and molars. The initial lesions included 193 untreated noncarious lesions, 44 old restorations without caries recurrence, and 3 old restorations with caries recurrence.

The Results

At the conclusion of the study (12 months post-op), the overall success rate for OptiBond XTR restorations was 97.5% while the success level for OptiBond FL was 94.8% being the gold standard in dental bonding. In short, OptiBond XTR and OptiBond FL are basically equivalent in terms of clinical effectiveness. Meanwhile, OptiBond XTR achieves excellent clinical results without the extra step of phosphoric acid etching.