Effect of addition of chitosan to self-etching primer: antibacterial activity and push-out bond strength to radicular dentin

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of a modified self-etching primer incorporating chitosan and whether this modification affected the bond strength to radicular dentin. A modified self-etching primer was prepared by adding chitosan solutions at 0.03%, 0.06%, 0.12% and 0.25% (W/W) to RealSeal selfe-tching primer. RealSeal primer without chitosan was used as the control. The antibacterial activity of the modified self-etching primer was evaluated using the direct contact test against Enterococcus faecalis. The bonding ability of the RealSeal system to radicular dentin was evaluated using the push-out bond strength test. The modes of failure were examined under a stereomicroscope. Data were analyzed using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's test, with a P-value < 0.05 indicating statistical significance. The results showed that the antibacterial properties of the freshly prepared and aged modified self-etching primer incorporating chitosan exhibited potent antibacterial effect against Enterococcus faecalis compared with the unmodified primer. The RealSeal system with the aged modified self-etching primer incorporating chitosan showed no significant differences in the bond strength as compared with the control (P = 0.99). The findings suggest that modified self-etching primer incorporating chitosan is a promising antibacterial primer which does not adversely affect the bond strength of the RealSeal system to radicular dentin.