Aim: The purpose of this study is to critically evaluate the factors that affect the bond strength of one-step and two-step self-etch adhesives by using meta-analysis.
Materials and methods: Potential papers that were selected according to inclusion and exclusion criteria from articles were published in 13 peer-reviewed journals using "PubMed data base". From each report, means and standard deviations of bond strengths were extracted and tabulated with corresponding experimental conditions.
Results: All the studied parameters showed no significant difference, except for dentin origin/site and bonding area. In addition, statistical analysis done with ANOVA showed statistical significance between the one-step and two-step self-etch adhesives.
Conclusions: Our analysis has showed that two-step self-etch adhesive system showed a superior in vitro performance in comparison to one-step self-etch system. Nevertheless, certain factors such as dentin origin, site and area of bonding affect the bond strength of adhesives.
Keywords: Bonding agents; meta-analysis review; self-etch adhesive.