Non-carious cervical lesions (NCCL) are characterized by a loss of hard dental tissue near the cement-enamel-junction. Commonly, their shape is like a wedge with the apex pointing inwards. Other times, they appear as regular depressions, like a dome or a cup. Their etiology seems to be related to different factors: hexogen and endogen acids, mechanical abrasive action, tooth flexion under axial and non-axial loads. Moreover, it seems that a fundamental role is ascribable to tooth bending phenomena due to the strength components parallel or oblique to the occlusal level, which occur during the normal function as well as during Para functions. The frequent therapeutic failures are probably due to the same factors causing the onset of the original lesion. Several materials have been proposed to restore NCCL: amalgam (abandoned) glass-ionomer cements, composers, and composite resins. Early failures of these restorations have often been reported in the literature, probably due to the same factors which originally caused the lesions. Further investigations are required to determine more reliable restorative therapies.

Bonding agents play a crucial role in the effective sealing and retention of resin-based composite restorations, which have been increasingly placed and replaced by dentists in many countries around the world. In fact, direct adhesive restoration with composite resins has become the procedure of choice for the treatment of anterior and posterior teeth. However, long-term durability of those restorations may be compromised due to progressive loss of the integrity of adhesive interfaces. This means that no adhesive strategy is free from technique sensitivity. The specificity and proportion of different constitutive molecules, the interaction between them and substrates can differ greatly from one class of adhesive system to another, which can affect bond quality. Protocol simplification has been an inevitable trend that has boosted the use of self-etching and universal systems in adhesive dentistry.