Effects of cleaning, polishing pretreatments and acid etching times on unground primary enamel.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of cleaning and polishing pretreatments and etching times on unground primary enamel smooth surfaces with respect to the quality of etching patterns. Labial surfaces of 117 extracted or exfoliated caries free primary anterior teeth were used. Various cleaning and polishing methods were used before etching. Etching times with 40% phosphoric acid gel were 10, 30 and 60 seconds and all specimens were washed with an air water spray for 30 seconds. The following observations were obtained using the SEM. 1. There was not a significant difference between the appearance of prism structures by etching and the pretreatment methods in the 60 and 30 seconds etching. 2. The shorter the etching time, the higher was the rate of the cases which did not show any prism structure after etching.