effect of adhesive pretreatments on marginal sealing of aged nano-ionomer restorations

background and aims. nano-ionomer (ni) interacts with tooth structures superficially, and there is a concern about the enamel bonding ability of mild self-etch ketac primer. this study compared the effect of different adhesive procedures (self-etching and etch-and-rinse approach) on long-term marginal microleakage of nano-filled resin-modified glass-ionomer (ni) cervical restorations. materials and methods. class v cavities were prepared on 72 maxillary premolars. the teeth were divided into six groups: g1: no treatment (nc); g2: ketac primer (k primer); g3: etchant + ketac primer (e+k primer); g4: self-etch adhesive (bond force); g5: etchant + bond force (e+bond force); g6: etchant + adper single bond (etch and rinse adhesive). all the cavities were restored with ketac n100. the samples were stored in water for 6 months and thermocycled for 2000 cycles. marginal sealing was assessed using dye penetration technique. data were analyzed with non-parametric tests (α=0.05). results. all the adhesive pretreatments resulted in a lower marginal leakage than that of nc (p≤0.01), except for e+bond force at the dentin margin. there was no significant difference between k primer and bond force. microleakage differed significantly between k primer pretreatment and e+k primer (p=0.003), e+bond force (p=0.002) and etch-and-rinse adhesive (p=0.001) at the enamel margin, but it did not differ at the dentin margin. e+ bond force group showed insignificantly lower leakage at the enamel margin and significantly higher leakage at the dentin margin (p=0.02). conclusion. etch-and-rinse adhesive and selective enamel etching along with self-etch adhesive/ketac primer might improve marginal sealing of aged nano-ionomer restoration.