Pyruvic acid as an etching agent.

Phosphoric acid at different concentrations has been extensively used as an etching agent to improve bonding of dental materials to enamel surfaces. Recently attention has been drawn to the possible use of polyfunctional organic acids as conditioning agents. The object of this investigation was to determine the optimal concentration of pyruvic acid as an etching agent. A commercial composite resin with an intermediary bonding system supplied with 37% H3PO4 as an etching agent was used as the control system. In addition, a comparative study was carried out to evaluate 37% H3PO4, 20% lactic acid and the optimal concentration of pyruvic acid as conditioning solutions. Etching enamel surfaces with 10% pyruvic acid resulted in the optimal tensile bond strength of the resin to etched enamel surfaces. The use of 10% pyruvic acid did not adversely affect the bond strength of the resin system when compared to enamel surfaces etched with 37% H3PO4 for the same time period. Significantly lower tensile bond strengths were recorded on enamel surfaces etched with 20% lactic acid. The rate and depth of etching obtained with 37% H3PO4 can be considerably reduced by using 10% pyruvic acid as the conditioning agent.