Bonding of self-adhesive resin cements to enamel using different surface treatments: bond strength and etching pattern evaluations.

This study evaluated the shear bond strengths and etching patterns of seven self-adhesive resin cements to human enamel specimens which were subjected to one of the following surface treatments: (1) Polishing with #600 polishing paper; (2) Phosphoric acid; (3) G-Bond one-step adhesive; or (4) Phosphoric acid and G-Bond. After surface treatment, the human incisor specimens were bonded to a resin composite using a self-adhesive resin cement [Maxcem (MA), RelyX Unicem (UN), Breeze (BR), BisCem (BI), seT (SE), Clearfil SA Luting (CL)] or a conventional resin cement [ResiCem (RE)]. Representative morphology formed with self-adhesive resin cements showed areas of etched enamel intermingled with areas of featureless enamel. In conclusion, etching efficacy influenced the bonding effectiveness of self-adhesive resin cements to unground enamel, and that a combined use of phosphoric acid and G-Bond for pretreatment of human enamel surfaces improved the bond strength of self-adhesive resin cements.