Preference of Self Etch Vs Total Etch among Dental Practitioners in India- A Survey

Abstract

Buonocore introduced Adhesion into dentistry 1955. According to the preference of the practitioners,
each generation of adhesive was replaced by the next generation which overcame the disadvantages of
the previous generation. Now, the adhesive which is in use are Self Etch, Total etch Adhesives and Resin
modified approach as it has unique properties of self adherence to the tooth. The concept of total etching or
etch and rinse technique was given way back in the early 1980s by Fusayama. With this background, the
aim of the present study is to survey the preference of Self etch VS Total etch among dental practitioners.
A Cross-sectional survey was conducted among the dental practitioners about their preference for self-etch
and total-etch adhesive. The data was collected and statistically analysed using the SPSS software version
23. Descriptive statistical analysis was carried out and the chi-square test was used and the p-value was
calculated, with a p-value less than 0.05 to be statistically significant. The present survey included 209
dental practitioners of different categories with a clinical experience of at least 3 months, 32.69 % of the
practitioners had clinical experience of 10 years and more than that. 71.15 % of the practitioners preferred the
usage of Total Etch and remaining 28.85 % preferred the usage of self etch. According to the Practitioners,
68.75 % considered the total etching technique as the best technique and 31.25 % considered self etch as the
beat technique. From this survey, it is seen that the majority of the practitioners preferred using total-etch
compared to self etch. Despite having its disadvantage it is preferred by the practitioners.