Effect of Desensitising Laser Treatment on the Bond Strength of Full Metal Crowns: An In Vitro Comparative Study

BACKGROUND Dentinal hypersensitivity is a very common complaint of patients undergoing crown and bridge restorations on vital teeth. Of the many desensitizing agents used to counter this issue, desensitizing laser treatment is emerging as one of the most successful treatment modality. However, the dentinal changes brought about by the desensitizing laser application could affect the bond strength of luting cements. MATERIALS AND METHODS Freshly extracted 48 maxillary first premolars, which were intact and morphologically similar were selected for the study. The specimens were divided into two groups, an untreated the control group and a desensitizing laser-treated group, which were exposed to Erbium, Chromium: Yttrium, Selenium, Galium, Garnet laser at 0.5 W potency for 15 s. Each of the above two groups were again randomly divided into two subgroups, on to which full veneer metal crowns, which were custom fabricated were luted using glass-ionomer and resin luting cements, respectively. Tensile bond strength of the luting cements was evaluated with the help of a Universal Testing Machine. Statistical analysis of the values were done using descriptive, independent samples' test, and two-way ANOVA test. RESULTS The tensile bond strength of crowns luted on desensitizing laser treated specimens using self-adhesive resin cement showed a marginal increase in bond strength though it was not statistically significant. CONCLUSION The self-adhesive resin cements could be recommended as the luting agent of choice for desensitizing laser treated abutment teeth, as it showed better bond strength.