Nanoleakage and Durability of Resin/Dentin Bonds

Micromorphological analysis is a useful method for the evaluation of resin–dentin bonds. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) can also be used to analyze the structure of resin–dentin bonds because of its high resolution. There are several reasons for the degradation of resin–dentin bonds such as the activation of endogenous dentin matrix metalloproteinases and the hydrolysis of methacrylate resins. Nanoleakage expression is an effective method for the identification of these degradation pathways and uses silver nitrate as a nanoleakage tracer. However, the resulting TEM images only provide two-dimensional information and the corresponding three-dimensional structure can only be realized based on the consideration of other experimental findings. The evaluation of nanoleakage structures in this way should provide a better understanding of the bond degradation pathways. This review provides an overview of recent developments towards the study of nanoleakage structures, with particular emphasis on their shape and bond degradation processes. © 2015, Springer International Publishing AG.