Effects of air abrasion with alumina or glass beads on surface characteristics of CAD/CAM composite materials and the bond strength of resin cements

OBJECTIVE: The study aimed to evaluate effects of air abrasion with alumina or glass beads on bond strengths of resin cements to CAD/CAM composite materials. MATERIAL AND METHODS: CAD/CAM composite block materials [Cerasmart (CS) and Block HC (BHC)] were pretreated as follows: (a) no treatment (None), (b) application of a ceramic primer (CP), (c) alumina-blasting at 0.2 MPa (AB), (d) AB followed by CP (AB+CP), and (e) glass-beads blasting at 0.4 MPa (GBB) followed by CP (GBB+CP). The composite specimens were bonded to resin composite disks using resin cements [G-CEM Cerasmart (GCCS) and ResiCem (RC)]. The bond strengths after 24 h (TC 0) and after thermal cycling (TC 10,000 at 4–60°C) were measured by shear tests. Three-way ANOVA and the Tukey compromise post hoc tests were used to analyze statistically significant differences between groups (α=0.05). RESULTS: For both CAD/CAM composite materials, the None group exhibited a significant decrease in bond strength after TC 10,000 (p<0.05). AB showed significantly higher bond strength after TC 10,000 than the None group, while CP did not (p<0.05). GBB exhibited smaller surface defects than did AB; however, their surface roughnesses were not significantly different (p>0.05). The AB+CP group showed a significantly higher bond strength after TC 10,000 than did the AB group for RC (p<0.05), but not for GCCS. The GBB+CP group showed the highest bond strength for both thermal cyclings (p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Air abrasion with glass beads was more effective in increasing bond durability between the resin cements and CAD/CAM composite materials than was using an alumina powder and a CP.