Effects of non-thermal atmospheric plasma on dentin wetting and adhesive bonding efficiency: Systematic review and meta-analysis

This systematic review and meta-analysis evaluated the effects of non-thermal atmospheric plasma (NTAP) treatment on dentin wetting and adhesive-dentin bond strength. This report followed the PRISMA 2020 statement. Two reviewers conducted literature search of MEDLINE, Web of Science and Scopus databases up to the end of November 2020. Included in vitro studies compared the effect of NTAP on treated dentin of non-carious, intact, extracted human third molar teeth with different control groups. Studies with no adequate methods, missing data, lack of control group, or those using animal teeth were excluded. The random effects model was used to summarize the treatment effect with standardized mean difference (SMD) and 95% CI. Risk of bias was assessed using the custom Cochrane Collaboration's tool. Seventeen studies met inclusion criteria. The effects on dentin wetting were reported in favor of NTAP (SMD -5.38; 95% CI [-6.97, -3.78]; p