Efficacy of novel cleansing agent for the decontamination of lithium disilicate ceramics: a shear bond strength study

Abstract

Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of Ivoclean as a ceramic cleansing agent, by assessing shear bond strength of pre-etched lithium disilicate (LD) ceramic to resin cement.Materials and Methods: Seventy LD discs (10 × 10 × 4 mm) were fabricated and etched using 5% hydrofluoric acid (HF) for 20 s. Ten specimens were not exposed to saliva and silicone disclosing medium (negative control). The other 60 specimens, divided into six groups (n = 10), were exposed to saliva for 20 s and silicone disclosing medium for 3 min. Following contamination, 10 specimens were not cleansed (positive control). The remaining five groups were exposed to one of the five different cleansing agents: 96% isopropanol, 37% phosphoric acid-30 s, 5% HF acid- 20 s, 5% HF acid- 120 s, and Ivoclean paste-20 s. All specimens were treated with primer and bonded to a self-curing resin cement. Before shear bond strength testing, all specimens were thermocycled (3000 cycles; 5–55°).Results: Contamination of pre-etched LD ceramic specimens significantly reduced the shear bond strength values from 22.39 ± 0.38 MPa (negative control) to 6.54 ± 0.90 MPa (positive control) (p < 0.05). Cleansing of contaminated ceramic specimens with 5% HF acid [20 s (19.28 ± 1.06 MPa) and 120 s (20.04 ± 1.09 MPa)] and Ivoclean (18.30 ± 0.97) provided significantly higher bond strength values than other cleansing methods with 37% phosphoric acid and 96% isopropanol (p < 0.05).Conclusion: Ivoclean and 5% HF acid were found to be effective in cleansing of LD ceramic surface by demonstrating maximum increase in shear bond strength values as compared to contaminated LD ceramics.