Leuven BIOMAT Research Cluster, Department of Conservative Dentistry, School of Dentistry, Oral Pathology and Maxillo-Facial Surgery, Catholic University of Leuven, Kapucijnenvoer 7, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium. bart.vanmeerbeek@med.kuleuven.be
One often alleges that laboratory bond-strength testing cannot predict clinical effectiveness of adhesives. Major argument to sustain this claim is the wide variation in bond-strength values recorded for one specific adhesive among different research institutes worldwide. The main reason for these inconsistent bond-strength measurements is supposedly the current lack of a standard bond-strength testing protocol. This paper (and presentation) aimed to report on an extensive literature review with regard to the different laboratory bond-strength test methods and their data provided, along with a second extensive literature review on clinical effectiveness data of adhesives in terms of retention rates of adhesive Class-V restorations. Combining both systematic reviews, we have subsequently searched for a potential relationship between bond-strength data and clinical outcomes.