This article complies a survey on the replacement of the posterior restorations and accesses possible factors that influence the replacement of posterior restorations.

The data was collected from patients that visited department of conservative dentistry from Dec 1st 2003, to Sep 3rd 2004. Teeth was restricted to posterior permanent teeth. 9 dentists recorded age, gender of patients, tooth location, cavity form and restorative material. They rated marginal adaptation, anatomic form, secondary caries of old restoration by modified Ryge criteria system. The statistical analysis was performed with Chi square test (p < 0.05) for replacement ratio according to patients, tooth factor and One-way ANOVA was performed for comparison of old restoration according to restorative material.

The results were as follows;

1. The female (62%) was statistically higher ratio than the male (38%).

2. The distribution of replacement case according to age, the rate of replacement was in descending order, 20's (38.3%), 40's (16.8%), 30's (15.9%), 10's (11.1%), 50's (9.2%), 60's (8.7%).

3. The rate of replacement was 88% for molar and 12% for premolar (p < 0.05).

4. The rate of replacement was 39% for maxillar and 61% for mandible (p < 0.05).

5. The material of restorations was amalgam (69%), gold inlay (17%), composite resin (13%).

6. In rating system by modified Ryge criteria system on margin adaptation, there was statistically significant difference between amalgam and gold inlay. But on anatomic form and caries, there was no statistically significant difference among the material of restorations.

The aims of the study were to evaluate the effect of epinephrine-containing local anesthetics on pulpal blood flow (PBF) and to investigate its effect on cavity preparation-induced PBF change. PBF was recorded using a laser Doppler flowmeter (Perimed Co., Sweden) from canines of nine cats under general anesthesia before and after injection of local anesthetics and after cavity preparation. 2% lidocaine hydrochloride with 1 : 100,000 epinephrine was administered by local infiltration given apical to the mandibular canine at the vestibular area and the same volume of isotonic saline was injected on the contralateral tooth as a control. A round carbide bur was operated at slow speed with isotonic saline flushing to grind spherical cavities with increasing depth through the enamel and into the dentin on both teeth. The obtained data was analyzed with paired t-test.

Cavity preparation caused significant increase of PBF (n = 9, p < 0.05). Local infiltration of lidocaine with epinephrine resulted in decreases of PBF (n = 9, p < 0.05), whereas there was no significant change of PBF with the physiologic saline as a control. Cavity preparation on tooth anesthetized with lidocaine with epinephrine caused significantly less increase of PBF than in control tooth (p < 0.05).

Therefore, the result of the present study demonstrates that local infiltration of 2% lidocaine with 1 : 100,000 epinephrine effectively reduces PBF increase caused by cavity preparation.

This study evaluated the marginal microleakage of five single step adhesives. Class V cavity preparations with occlusal margins in enamel and gingival margins in dentin were prepared on both buccal and lingual surfaces of extracted human molar teeth. Prepared teeth were randomly divided into five groups and restored using one of the single step adhesives and composite resins: Prompt L-Pop/Filtek Z-250 (Group 1), AQ Bond/Metafil CX (Group 2), One-Up Bond F/Palfique Toughwell (Group 3), Futurabond/Admira (Group 4), Xeno III/Spectrum TPH (Group 5).

The restored teeth were thermocycled. Microleakage was assessed by dye penetration using 2% methylene blue dye solution. The teeth were bisected buccolingually and evaluated for microleakage under steromicroscope. The data were statistically analysed by Kruskal-Wallis test and Mann-Whitney tests.

The results of this study were as follows;

Microleakage of enamel margins in group 3 was statistically higher than that in groups 1, 2, 4, 5 (p < 0.05).

In conclusion, Prompt L-Pop showed the least leakage at enamel margin, and AQ Bond showed at dentin margin in this study. Marginal miroleakage in dentin was higher than that in enamel.