Factors that affect the adhesion of two irreversible hydrocolloid materials to two custom tray materials

Little evidence is available on the length of time that adhesive should be allowed to dry before irreversible hydrocolloid impression making.

This study investigated the effect of adhesive drying times on the bond strengths of 2 irreversible hydrocolloid impression materials to 2 "custom" tray materials.

A total of 1,632 specimens were tested: 816 in tensile tests and 816 in tests of the shear bond strength (megapascals) of 2 irreversible hydrocolloid impression materials to an autopolymerizing and a visible light-polymerizing acrylic resin tray material. In the first part of the investigation, a single coat of adhesive was applied to specimen plates that simulated the custom impression tray surface; in the second part, a second coat of adhesive was applied after the irreversible hydrocolloid was removed, and the effect of this second coating on bond strength was examined. In both parts, the adhesive was allowed to dry for a range of times (0 to 8 minutes at 30-second intervals, for a total of 17 time periods) before the addition of the impression material. The specimen plates were placed in a humidor and separated in a universal testing machine operated at a crosshead speed of 100 mm/min with 0- to 5-kN load cell. Data from each of the 1,632 specimens were collected and evaluated with analysis of variance, regression analysis, and t tests (P<.05).

Significant differences in mean bond strengths were found between specimens with a 4-minute adhesive drying time (0.179 MPa tensile, 0.068 MPa shear) and specimens with a 0-minute drying time (0.065 MPa tensile, 0.015 MPa shear). Any period over 4 minutes produced no significant difference. The mean bond strengths of the single-coated specimens were 0.179 MPa (tensile) and 0.076 MPa (shear). These values were significantly greater than those for specimens with a second adhesive layer (0.136 MPa tensile, 0.035 MPa shear) over all time periods. Mean tensile bond strengths (0.158 MPa) were consistently higher than shear bond strengths (0.056 MPa) for all combinations of tray material, adhesive application, and time.

Within the limitations of this study, the results suggest that adhesive applied to the autopolymerized and light-polymerized custom tray materials tested should be allowed to dry for at least 4 minutes before irreversible hydrocolloid is applied. Better results were obtained when the adhesive layer from a failed irreversible hydrocolloid impression was removed and replaced rather than overlaid with an additional adhesive coating.