Bovine teeth as possible substitutes in the adhesion test.

In order to find a substitute for human teeth in the adhesion test, the adhesive strength to bovine teeth was compared with that to human teeth using five dental cements and two composite resins. The adhesion to enamel and the superficial layer of dentin showed no statistically significant difference between human and bovine teeth, although the mean values were always slightly lower with bovine teeth. Adhesion to bovine dentin decreased considerably with the depth of dentin.