Abstract
Objectives: To investigate the effect of Co-curing versus Staged-curing and No-bonding on retention of different resin-based sealants (RBS). Study design: For shear bond strength (SBS) and microleakage tests, 90 extracted premolars were divided equally into 3 groups (I, II, III). Each group was further subdivided equally into 3 subgroups (a, b, c). No-bonding subgroups did not receive a bonding agent, Staged-curing subgroups received a bonding agent that was cured before sealant application, while Co-curing subgroups received a bonding agent that was cured after sealant application. Seal-it was applied for group I, Helioseal-F for group II and Clinpro for group III. SBS buttons were tested using Instron machine, while microleakage specimens were examined using micro-CT. Results: Clinpro showed the highest SBS values in Staged-curing and No-bonding groups (8.72 +/- 2.39, 12.51 +/- 3.16) respectively. Staged-curing was significantly greater in SBS values than those for other groups (P<0.05). There was a significant difference in microleakage values of Staged-curing among different RBS (P = 0.003), while there was no significant difference in values of No-bonding and Co-curing among different RBS (P = 0.541, P = 0.521). Conclusions: The use of a bonding agent as Staged-curing was more effective in improving sealant retention than No-bonding and Co-curing.