IMMEDIATE DENTIN SEALING

This lecture addresses durable dentin bonding for semi-direct and indirect CAD/CAM restorations. It revisits the concept of Immediate Dentin Sealing, commonly being referred to as ‘IDS’, in contemporary adhesive luting. IDS is contrasted with Delayed Dentin Sealing (DDS), which is performed during the luting procedure itself. This lecture will report on an extensive laboratory study, in which multiple clinical scenarios were simulated, including provisionalization, contamination, tooth vitality, and aging. The central focus is the impact of separately light-curing the adhesive at the dentin site before luting. Results demonstrate that DDS performs as well as IDS when the adhesive is pre-cured on dentin. In contrast, DDS without separate adhesive light-curing leads to catastrophic bond failure on vital dentin. IDS and DDS optimized with separate light-curing of the adhesive both showed stable, aging-resistant bond strength upon long-term thermo-mechanical loading in a chewing simulator. Microscopy and µCT analyses explain these findings by differences in interfacial integrity and water-related porosity. The lecture clarifies why IDS often appears superior in literature and how protocol design drives this perception. Clinical implications are discussed to guide evidence-based selection between IDS and DDS in daily practice.