Microleakage of adhesive and nonadhesive luting cements for stainless steel crowns.

This study's purpose was to compare the ability of 5 luting cements to reduce microleakage at stainless steel crown (SSC) margins on primary molar teeth. Standard preparations were performed on 100 extracted primary molar teeth for SSC restoration. After fitting SSCs, samples were randomly divided into 5 groups of 20 teeth each, which were cemented with nonadhesive cement consisting of polycarboxylate (PC) or zinc phosphate (ZP), or with adhesive cement consisting of glass ionomer (GIC), resin-modified glass ionomer cement (RMGIC), or RMGIC with a bonding agent (RMGIC+DBA). After aging and thermocycling, the specimens were placed in 1% methylene blue, sectioned, and evaluated under a digital microscope. The data were compared between groups with the t test, analysis of variance, and the least significant difference test. Microleakage with adhesive cements was significantly lower than with nonadhesive cements (P<.05). Differences between cements were statistically significant at P<.001. RMGIC+DBA showed the lowest microleakage, followed in increasing order by RMGIC, GIC, and ZP. The PC cement showed the greatest microleakage. Adhesive cements were more effective in reducing microleakage in stainless steel crowns than nonadhesive cements. Use of a bonding agent with a resin-modified glass ionomer cement yielded better results than using the latter alone.