International Journal of Adhesion and Adhesives, vol.120, 2023 (SCI-Expanded)
© 2022 Elsevier LtdIn underwater and hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers, hyperbaric environments may cause dislodgement or crack on dental restorations. This study aimed to investigate microleakage in different bonding techniques under hyperbaric conditions. Class II cavities were prepared on sixty human molar teeth. According to the manufacturer's instructions, a universal adhesive was applied to half of the samples with the self-etch technique, and the selective-etch technique to the other half, then light-cured. The cavities were restored with a conventional resin composite. The two main groups were divided into subgroups for hyperbaric conditions as control (1-bar), 2.8-bar, and 4-bar air pressure. The samples were immersed in a 1% methylene blue dye solution and then sectioned. Microleakage was evaluated under a stereomicroscope. Data were analyzed with the Chi-square test and Fisher's Exact Chi-square test with a p < 0.05 significance level. The 4-bar groups showed significantly higher microleakage scores than the control and 2.8-bar groups among each selective-etch and self-etch subgroups (0.009, 0.000 respectively). In the 4-bar groups, The self-etch subgroup score was significantly higher than the selective-etch subgroup under 4-bar pressure (p < 0.05). The selective-etch technique for universal adhesive showed better results against microleakage under hyperbaric conditions.