Clinical evaluation of One-up Bond F

Dentine bonding agents have undergone considerable changes since they became popular in the early 1980s. The two principal developments have been a change in the bonding mechanism from attempts at chemical bonding to now well-established micromechanical bonding, and a reduction in the complexity of use from three clinical steps to one step.

Products are thus now available in which the traditional etching, priming and bonding steps are carried out simultaneously, i.e., an "all-in-one" system. Our publication in the Australian Dental Journal reports the clinical performance over one year of one such product, One-Up Bond F (Tokuyama Corporation, Tokyo, Japan*), in the retention of a resin composite (Palfique Estilite; Tokuyama*) in non-undercut non-carious cervical lesions.

Fifty-one lesions were restored in 15 patients of mean age 58 years. The restorations were evaluated after six months and one year for retention and marginal staining. Sixty per cent of restorations were placed in premolars, the balance being divided approximately among the other teeth. At six months, one patient did not return, but the 44 restorations which could be evaluated were all present. At one year, 42 restorations were available for evaluation, and all were present. Three restorations, all in one patient, had slight but clinically insignificant marginal staining. The 2-year results were reported at the International Association for Dental Research meeting in June 2003; 37 restorations were available for evaluation and all were intact. Marginal staining was observed around nine restorations, although this was not of great clinical concern. No caries was detected.

"All-in-one" systems are relatively new and there are very few published clinical studies. The 100 per cent retention rate at two years is extremely good and has not been achieved by other (earlier type) dentine bonding agents in the clinical studies which we have carried out. One of the useful features of this product is the colour change from pink to yellow colour on curing, which assists in the certainty of placement.

Two years is a limited time to be able to reliably predict long-term performance and the mean age of the patients (58 years) suggests that the dentine was probably sclerosed. Several laboratory bond strength studies have shown a deterioration in bond strength after long-term specimen storage, and others have shown markedly different bond strengths to sclerotic dentine compared to normal dentine. Commonly the bond to sclerotic dentine is weaker than normal dentine. However, given these two caveats, we are very encouraged by the results to date.

This article is a summary of an article in the Australian Dental Journal 2003; 48: 180-182

Tokuyama products are available in Australia from Dentavision.