Saliva Contamination Research Paper

Effect of saliva contamination is a matter of great controversy. Few studies have reported that the use of dentine bonding agents under fissure sealants has reduced their sensitivity to saliva contamination and provided high bond strengths(85.86). Some have reported that the saliva contamination of dentine had no adverse effect on the bonding efficiency of one-bottle adhesive systems(10). Others have shown that the saliva contamination of the dentine surface produced a significant decrease in the bond strength(87.88) The factors that can be hypothesized as the cause for reduction in the bond strength in saliva contaminated dentine are as follows:( 89- 90)
1. Adsorption of glycoprotein to the poorly polymerized adhesive surface where they might act as a barrier that prevents complete wetting with the next increment of resin and thus prevent adequate co-polymerization.
2. Salivary proteins might prevent monomers from penetrating the collagen network of dentine or there can be an increase in the contact angle which could decrease the bond strength.
3. Excess saliva may dilute the primer and thus produce a weak hybrid layer.
4. Co-polymerization with the subsequent resin layer could be compromised by the removal of the oxygen inhibited unpolymerized

For all adhesives, decontamination of contaminated cured adhesives by “washing and drying” resulted in the lowest bond strength. But, each of the two decontamination procedures, “slow drying” or “washing, drying and reapplication of adhesive,” was acceptable. They related this result to removal of the adhesive layer during washing and drying, leaving a surface that was demineralized but non-infiltrated by monomers. Scanning electron microscopic evaluation also showed minimal resin infiltration on the fractured