Pretreatment of the dentinal surface with acidic solution is now considered to be necessary to obtain strong bonding between dentin and resin materials. Effects of various surface treatments for dentin bonding on dentinal smear removal have been reported by SEM observation. In this study, changes of dentin permeability after the surface treatments were measured using Pashley's technique. Forty-second treatments with either phosphoric acid gel, aqueous phosphoric acid, 10-3 solution or aqueous 10-20 Ca solution (10% citric acid containing 20% CaCl2) produced greater increases in dentin permeability compared with the treatments using either 10-20 Ca gel, Tenure Conditioner, Scotchprep or Gluma 2 for 40 seconds. Treatments with primers including adhesive monomers such as Scotchprep and Mirage Conditioner also increased the dentin permeability by removal of the smear layers and smear plugs. Application of a bonding agent (Clearfil Photobond) for 1 minute did not remove the smear plugs and the dentin permeability remained the same as before the treatment. The changes in dentin permeability were not predictable by SEM observation in some cases.