Evaluation of microleakage in hybrid composite restoration with different intermediate layers and curing cycles

Objective: To evaluate the impact of bulk or incremental curing of hybrid composite resin with different intermediate layers on interfacial microleakage. Materials and Methods: The recently extracted, sixty noncarious human mandibular molars were selected for the study. The standardized mesio-occluso-distal cavity with the occlusal cavity of 2 mm depth, 3 mm buccolingual width and proximal box dimension of 4 mm buccolingual width and 2 mm depth was prepared on all experimental teeth. The samples were divided into six groups of ten each. Group I was without an intermediate layer. Group II and III had 1 mm flowable composite liner, with incremental and bulk curing cycle, respectively. The Group IV, V, and VI had a self-cure composite liner with incremental and bulk curing. The teeth subjected to thermocycling and kept in 0.5% basic fuchsine dye for 24 h. The teeth were sectioned and observed under a stereomicroscope to grade them according to the extent of microleakage. The obtained data were statistically analyzed with Kruskal–Wallis and post hoc comparison test to understand the difference between the groups. Results: The Group II with flowable composite along incremental curing showed the least microleakage at both enamel (0.30) and cementum surface (0.50). The groups with self-cure composite liner were less effective than flowable composite. The microleakage at the enamel interface was less compared cementum interface across the groups. The groups with bulk curing were more prone to microleakage than incremental curing cycle. Conclusions: Within the limitation of the study, it was concluded that intermediate flowable composite with incremental curing was better suited to reduce microleakage.