Shear bond strength of a resin-reinforced glass ionomer cement: an in vitro comparative study

Shear bond strength of Concise (a composite resin adhesive) and Fuji Ortho LC (a light-cured resin-reinforced glass ionomer cement) bonded to extracted teeth was tested under different bonding conditions: (1) Concise/etched/dry (2) Fuji/etched/dry (3) Fuji/etched/wet (4) Fuji/unetched/dry (5) Fuji/unetched/wet. Concise/etched/dry and Fuji/etched/dry groups showed comparable mean shear bond strength (10.5 and 8.2 MPa, respectively); the other three groups had considerably lower values. The difference between Fuji/etched/dry and Fuji/etched/wet was not statistically significant. The site of bond failure was between bracket and adhesive in all etched groups and between adhesive and enamel in the unetched groups. We conclude that (1) enamel surface etching is required for Fuji Ortho LC to achieve optimum bond strength, (2) moisture does not affect bond strength of Fuji Ortho LC significantly.