Comparative Evaluation of Bond Strength of Dual-Cured Resin Cements: An In-Vitro Study

BACKGROUND To compare the microtensile bond strength of resin cements to enamel and dentin and to determine the type of bond failure using stereomicroscope. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this in-vitro study 40 teeth were embedded in acrylic resin and divided into two main groups i.e., Group A for enamel and Group B for dentin. Each group is again subdivided into four subgroups, which are as follows; Subgroup 1 for Calibra resin cement, Subgroup 2 for Paracem, Subgroup 3 for Variolink II and Subgroup 4 for Rely X ARC. These resin cements were applied on enamel and dentin according to manufacturer's instructions followed by incremental build-up of composite resin on the top of resin cements. Each tooth was sectioned perpendicular to the resin-substrate interface with a slow speed diamond saw under water cooling yielding sections of approximately 1 mm(2). On an average, three sections from each tooth were used for testing. The beams obtained after sectioning were stressed to failure under tension in a custom made stainless steel forceps held in a universal testing machine (Lloyd) at a crosshead speed of 1.0 mm/min. Results were analyzed using two-way analysis of variance, independent t-test, and Tukey's HSD post-hoc test. RESULTS Cements bonded to enamel substrates showed higher mean bond strength compared to dentin, which is statistically significant. Rely X ARC showed highest mean bond strength to both the substrates. CONCLUSION There was a significant difference between the bond strength to enamel and dentin and, Rely X ARC resin cement showed higher bond strength compared with the other groups.