Evaluation of plasma treatment effects on improving adhesive/dentin bonding by using the same tooth controls and varying cross-sectional surface areas

摘要

The objective of this study is to evaluate and verify the effectiveness of plasma treatment for improving adhesive/dentin interfacial bonding by performing micro-tensile bond strength (μTBS) test using the same-tooth controls and varying cross-sectional surface areas. Extracted unerupted human third molars were used by removing the crowns to expose the dentin surface. For each dentin surface, one half of it was treated with a non-thermal argon plasma brush, while another half was shielded with glass slide and used as untreated control. Adper Single Bond Plus adhesive and Filtek Z250 dental composite were then applied as directed. The teeth thus prepared were further cut into micro-bar specimens with cross-sectional size of 1×1 mm², 1×2 mm² and 1×3 mm² for μTBS test. The test results showed that plasma treated specimens gave substantially stronger adhesive/dentin bonding than their corresponding same tooth controls. As compared with their untreated controls, plasma treatment gave statistically significant higher bonding strength for specimens having cross-sectional area of 1×1 mm² and 1×2 mm², with mean increases of 30.8% and 45.1%, respectively. Interface examination using optical and electron microscopy verified that plasma treatment improved the quality of the adhesive/dentin interface by reducing defects/voids and increasing the resin tag length in dentin tubules.