Effect of Composite Age on the Repair Bond Strength after Different Mechanical Surface Pretreatments

Purpose: To investigate the reparability of aged and fresh resin composite after different mechanical surface pretreatments. Materials and Methods: Sixty composite specimens (Filtek Supreme XTE, 3M Oral Care) were either aged by thermal cycling (5000 cycles, 5–55°C) and six months of water storage, or immediately processed within 5 min after polymerization. Both aged and fresh specimens were either ground with fine (46-µm) or coarse (100-µm) diamond burs and then silanized or sandblasted with aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and silanized. In the negative control group, no mechanical surface pretreatment or silanization was performed. Specimens (n = 6 per group) were repaired with an adhesive (OptiBond FL, Kerr) and a resin composite (Filtek Supreme XTE). Directly adhered composite-to-composite increments served as the positive control group. After thermoycling, microtensile repair bond strength was assessed and statistically analyzed (α = 0.05). Results: Aged composite surfaces revealed significantly lower repair bond strength than immediately repaired composite. The negative control group demonstrated the significantly lowest microtensile bond strength of all groups. No significant differences in repair bond strength were observed between the different mechanical pretreatments for both aged and fresh specimens. The repair bond strength of fresh composite pretreated with a fine diamond bur + Al2O3 + silane or a coarse diamond bur with/without Al2O3 + silane did not differ significantly from the positive control group. Conclusion: The age of the repaired composite has a greater influence on repair bond strength than does the type of composite surface pretreatment. Keywords: composite repair, aged composite, immediate reparability, surface pretreatment, aluminum oxide sandblasting, microtensile bond strength