Efficacy of Polyacrylic Acid as a Conditioning Agent on the Bond Strength of Self-adhesive Resin Cements to Dental Enamel.

Abstract

This in vitro study evaluated the effectiveness of polyacrylic acid as an acid etchant similar to phosphoric acid and its effect on the microtensile bond strength of self-adhesive resin cement to enamel. Ninety Te-Econom Plus resin blocks (11 x 4 mm) were cemented onto bovine enamel and distributed into 10 groups according to the surface treatments (no surface treatment; etching with 37% phosphoric acid; etching with 20% polyacrylic acid; etching with 37% phosphoric acid + dental adhesive, and etching with 20% polyacrylic acid + dental adhesive) and the self-adhesive resin cements used (RelyX U200 and MaxCem Elite) (n = 9). After bonding, the specimens were sectioned into sticks, subjected to thermocycling (5760 cycles, 5°C and 55°C) and microtensile bond strength testing (n = 6). Images of representative specimens were obtained using a scanning electron microscope. Enamel penetration evaluation of different surface treatments was analysed by confocal laser scanning microscopy (n = 3). Data on bond strength were subjected to 2-way ANOVA and Tukey's least significant difference test (α = 0.05). Both 37% phosphoric acid and 20% polyacrylic acid yielded the same microtensile bond strength between self-adhesive resin cement and enamel, independent of the application of dental adhesives (p > 0.05). MaxCem Elite showed higher bond strength values than RelyX U200 just for the 20% polyacrylic acid group (p = 0.001). Acid pre-conditioning of dental enamel may influence the bond strength of self-adhesive resin cement to enamel, and 20% polyacrylic acid showed efficacy similar to that of 37% phosphoric acid.