Effect of Surface Treatments of Zirconia Ceramics on the Bond Strength to Resin Cement

Purpose: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the bond strength of a resin luting cement to zirconia surfaces that had received two novel surface pretreatment methods: etching of a pre-fired overglaze or paste liner on the zirconia substrate. Materials and Methods: Fully sintered zirconia disks were assigned to 6 groups according to the surface pretreatment: firing of 2 layers of paste liner which was then etched with hydrofluoric acid and treated with silane (Liner group); firing of 2 layers of overglaze which were then etched with hydrofluoric acid and treated with silane (glaze group); Rocatec treatment and silane application (Rocatec group); Rocatec treatment followed by ultrasonic cleaning and silanization (ultrasonic-Rocatec group); sandblasted with alumina (alumina group); as-sintered with no pretreatment (control group). Twenty composite resin cylinders were bonded to each group with Panavia F 2.0. Each group was further divided into 2 subgroups (n = 10) for 2 different storage conditions: 24 h water storage or 3 weeks water storage plus 6000 thermocycles between 5°C and 55°C. The shear bond strength was then determined. Statistical analyses with two-way ANOVA were conducted; the level of significance was set at p 0.05. Results: At 24 h, the shear bond strength values of all groups except the control showed no statistically significant difference. After artificial aging, the mean bond strength of all groups dropped, but the decrease in the glaze group was not statistically significant. The glaze group showed the highest shear bond strength. However, that was not statistically different from the liner or the Rocatec group without ultrasonic cleaning (p 0.05). All the control specimens debonded spontaneously after aging. Ultrasonic cleaning after Rocatec treatment caused a reduction in shear bond strength, but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusion: Both the fired paste liner and overglazed ceramic treated zirconia surfaces provided a strong and durable bond to resin cement under the conditions tested. Keywords: zirconia, silica coating, resin cements, silane, surface treatment of zirconia