The Role of Silane Coupling Agents and Universal Primers in Durable Adhesion to Dental Restorative Materials - a Review

One of the most important aspects in the field of dentistry is adhesion. Adhesion can be enhanced through different mechanisms, most commonly by chemical and mechanical modifications of dental material surfaces. One example of chemical adhesion utilizes primers or bonding agents containing coupling agents. Universal primers which are (mainly organophosphate-based monomers) and silane coupling agents are the most effective and most widely used for unifying dissimilar materials. Other than improving adhesion, Silanes have many other applications in dentistry. They have been found also to enhance the mechanical properties of materials either by adhesion or by becoming a constituent of dental materials itself. Universal primers, on the other hand, are utilized in bonding between different dental materials such as ceramics, metals, alloys, as well as to resin composites. Unfortunately, these primers, coupling agents, and bonding agents have, in general, poor hydrolytic stability. They are susceptible to humid oral environment, which invariably render them potentially unstable in the humid oral environment as saliva is always present. Improving their hydrolytic stability should therefore result in stronger adhesion for dental materials and dental prosthesis with a better clinical survival rate.