Five-year Clinical Evaluation of Universal Adhesives in Noncarious Cervical Lesions

Objectives: To compare the clinical performance of mildly acidic universal adhesives Scotchbond Universal (SU, 3M Oral Care, St Paul, MN, USA) and Prime & Bond Elect (PBE, Dentsply Sirona, Charlotte, NC, USA) in the restoration of noncarious cervical lesions (NCCLs). Methods and Materials: A total of 63 patients in need of 203 NCCL restorations participated in this randomized controlled clinical trial. Notch-shaped lesions were restored with Kalore (GC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) after application of either SU or PBE, following the etch-and-rinse (ER) or self-etch (SE) techniques. Subjects were followed up for 60 months. The focus of the statistical analyses was on the change of outcome over time as assessed by the Modified USPHS rating system (ie, Alfa vs Bravo + Charlie outcomes). Logistic regression was performed for each outcome separately with compound symmetric variance-covariance structure assumed to consider a correlation of restorations within subjects. All analyses were conducted using SAS 9.4 (SAS, Cary, NC, USA). Results: One-hundred twenty-nine teeth in 35 subjects were assessed at the 60-month follow-up. In addition, three restorations that failed prior to the 60-month evaluation, two of which were in subjects who did not present for the 60-month follow-up, were included in the statistical analysis. In total, two restorations in the SU_ER group and three restorations in the PBE_SE group failed the retention category. Statistically significant differences were obtained for the comparison of restorations in the PBE_SE and PBE_ER groups, where the former was 58% less likely to maintain a score of Alfa for marginal discoloration than the latter. Conclusions: SU and PBE demonstrated acceptable clinical performance at 60 months with regard to restoration retention. Phosphoric-acid etching of the NCCLs prior to adhesive application significantly improved the performance of PBE in regard to marginal discoloration.