Class V cavities diagnostic by en-face optical coherence tomography. the necessity of increasing the scattering for adhesive layer media

Introduction. For the evaluation of marginal adaptation in class V composite restorations, several methods have been developed. Dye penetration tests, however, are to be the most widely used due to their ease of application and low costs. In previous works, the advantages of using en-face optical coherence tomography investigation in this research direction were demonstrated. The purpose of this study is to underline the need to increase the scattering of the adhesive layers in order to facilitate the imagistic interpretations. Material and Methods. En-face Optical Coherence Tomography was employed to investigate 20 class V cavities samples. Standardized class V cavities, prepared in human extracted teeth, were flled with Premise (Kerr) composite. In 10 samples a normal adhesive (OptiBond Solo Plus) was applied, while in the other 10 both the normal and the improved adhesive were used. The specimens were thermocycled. The interfaces were examined by Optical Coherence Tomography method (OCT) combined with the confocal microscopy (CM). Results. Using the normal adhesive could lead to errors in evaluation of the interfaces between the dental structures and dental fllings, when OCT is employed. However, when an adhesive with an improved scattering was used, the differences between the aeric inclusions and the adhesive layer are obvious. Conclusions. An adhesive with improved scattering properties is recommended in an OCT investigation of microleakage for class V composite restorations.