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The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of etching time on the depth of demineralization using scanning electron microscopy. Twenty dentin discs were obtained after sectioning with a diamond disc from extracted human molars. The specimens were divided into 4 different etching time groups (n = 5), etched with 37% phosphoric acid, fixed and scanned under scanning electron microscope using 5000x magnification. Mean depth of demineralization for an etching time of 5s was 0.9mm, for etching time of 15s mean depth was 1.64mm, 2.34mm and 2.98 mm for 35s and 45s respectively. The results were analysed with ANOVA followed by Duncan’s test at 5% level of significance. An increase in etching time caused an increase in the depth of demineralization. Etching time and dentin demineralization were not proportional to each other.
