Dental Amalgam still remains the most widely used posterior restorative material, ease of use and cost effectiveness. One of the primary shortcoming of amalgam is its inability to bond to tooth structure. To retain the restoration in the cavity healthy tooth structure has to be sacrificed. Hence this in vitro study was under taken to evaluate the resistance form of different class II cavity designs, restored with silver amalgam with and without the use of bonding agent. 84 freshly extracted teeth were selected for the study. They were divided into 4 major groups I, II, III and IV of 21 teeth each, depending on different cavity designs. Each group was further subdivided into 3 sub groups A, B, C having 7 teeth in each sub group depending on the different restorative procedures. They were then subjected to universal testing machine. The results were statistically analyzed. When the mean failure loads in Newton was considered, group II i.e. cavities with retentive grooves and those restored without the use of amalgam bond or bond plus i.e. sub group B and C required higher load to fracture the restoration. However the adhesive failure was seen at the junction of tooth restoration in cavities without retentive grooves and when restored without the use of adhesive liner. The study concludes the grooves, amalgam bond, bond plus provides significant level of resistance to dislodgement for Class II amalgam restoration.

A stereomicroscopic microleakage study was conducted to test whether etching of enamel would improve adhesion of glass ionomer sealants to non-invasive fissure enamel. Forty eight extracted human premolars were divided into 2 equal groups, their crowns were cleaned with pumice and stored in 0.5% thymol solution. In group 1, enamel was etched for 45 seconds with 37% phosphoric acid and in group 2, enamel was not etched. Glass ionomer sealant was applied to all 48 teeth, then they were thermocycled in water (120 cycles between 0o and 56oC) and stained with 0.5% methylene blue solution. Teeth were sectioned at cervix, roots were discarded, crowns were sectioned in buccolingual direction by microtome. Statistically significant difference in amounts of microleakage were found in group 1 and group 2. Minimum microleakage was detected in 66.7% of the etched teeth, whereas extensive microleakage was observed in 55% of non-etched teeth. Results suggested that etching prior to application enhances the bonding of glass ionomer sealant to fissure enamel.

It is extremely important to prevent post-operative sensitivity following placement of amalgam restoration. An attempt had been made by conducting a study in 27 patients (having 30 class I and/or class II lesions) for post-operative sensitivity after amalgam restorations by using CHX as a cavity cleanser in one group and distilled water in another for toilet of the cavity. There was a significant remarkable reduction in post-operative sensitivity where CHX was used as cavity cleanser. Hence CHX should be routinely advocated as a cavity cleanser. Moreover it is also very effective in prevention of dental caries primarily due to its action on mutans streptococci.

Bonding of restorative materials to tooth structure has become one of the prime objectives of modern dentistry. Traditional glass ionomers have generally been relegated to a secondary role in favour of composite resins. To circumvent these problems of traditional GIC, resin modified GIC, and polyacid modified composite resins have been introduced having good adhesion and improved properties. Hence a study was undertaken to compare and evaluate shear bond strengths of Resin Modified GIC and Poly acid modified composite resin to enamel and dentin on 40 extracted teeth. Poly acid modified composite resin showed significantly higher bond strength values to both enamel and dentin. Also both the compomer and resin modified GIC show significantly high shear bond strength value to enamel than to dentin.

Cervical erosion defects particularly of extensive size that are located in an area where control of the operative field is difficult, can present a significant restorative challenge. Here, an indirect restorative technique has been described to solve the problem of difficult isolation following tooth preparation, an indirect restoration was luted to the tooth and margins were finished and polished. Using an indirect technique, the operative field isolation time was minimized and the total chairside time required to restore was also reduced. Clinical cases are presented here to illustrate this technique.

Silver amalgam, light cure GIC and MTA were used to compare the sealing ability as retrograde restoration. Forty freshly extracted maxillary incisors were selected for this study. Thirty teeth were used as experimental groups and ten were used as control. Root canals were prepared and obturated with gutta percha points and apicoectomy was performed. A 3-mm-deep retrograde cavity was prepared in the entire group except the negative control group. Teeth with retrograde cavity were divided into three groups of 10 each. First group was retro filled with amalgam, second group with light cure GIC and the third group with MTA. The surface of tooth were isolated with nail polish and were stored in 1% methylene blue dye for 72 h. Roots were sectioned, and the depth of dye penetration was evaluated through a travelling microscope. The result showed that MTA had significantly less leakage than light cure GIC that was followed by silver amalgam.