Adhesion to a Zirconia-reinforced Lithium Silicate Ceramic: Effects of Ceramic Surface Treatments and Resin Cements

This study had the objective to test the effect of ceramic surface treatments on the microshear bond strength (μSBS) of different resin cements to a zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate (ZLS).

ZLS blocks were sectioned, embedded in acrylic resin, and then allocated into nine groups considering two study factors: "ceramic surface treatment" (HF - hydrofluoric acid; EP - self-etching primer; TBS - tribochemical silica coating) and "resin cements" (nMDP - without MDP monomer; MDP - with MDP monomer; SA - self-adhesive). Starch tubes (n=36) were placed on the treated ceramic surface and the cement was applied. Starch tubes were removed after 24 hours of storage, and the specimens were thermocycled (5,000×; 5°C-55°C). Next, the μSBS test was performed using the wire-loop technique, and topographic and failure analyses were performed.

The factors "ceramic surface treatment" and "resin cement" statistically influenced the μSBS results. Considering the surface treatment factor, the TBS produced statistically lower values when the MDP resin cement was applied, being only similar to the MDP plus EP group. For the resin cement factor, no difference was found for nMDP and SA groups, apart from the surface treatments. Failure analysis showed that the groups treated with EP had a greater number of pre-test failures. The surface treatments induced noteworthy topographic alterations when compared to control (no treatment).

The ZLS ceramic surface treatment with tribochemical silica coating associated with the MDP-containing resin cement resulted in lower bond strength values.