A comparison of shear bond strength of ceramic and resin denture teeth on different acrylic resin bases.

The purpose of this study is to compare the shear bond strength of different resin bases and artificial teeth made of ceramic or acrylic resin materials and whether tooth-base interface may be treated with aluminium oxide sandblasting. Experimental measurements were carried on 80 specimens consisting of a cylinder of acrylic resin into which a single tooth is inserted. An ad hoc metallic frame was realized to measure the shear bond strength at the tooth-base interface. A complete factorial plan was designed and a three-way ANalysis Of VAriance (ANOVA) was carried out to investigate if shear bond strength is affected by the following factors: (i) tooth material (ceramic or resin); (ii) base material (self-curing or thermal-curing resin); (iii) presence or absence of aluminium oxide sandblasting treatment at the tooth-base interface. Tukey post hoc test was also conducted to evaluate any statistically significant difference between shear strength values measured for the dif-ferently prepared samples. It was found from ANOVA that the above mentioned factors all affect shear strength. Furthermore, post hoc analysis indi-cated that there are statistically significant differences (p-value=0.000) between measured shear strength values for: (i) teeth made of ceramic material vs. teeth made of acrylic resin material; (ii) bases made of self-curing resin vs. thermal-curing resin; (iii) specimens treated with aluminium oxide sandblasting vs. untreated specimens. Shear strength values measured for acryl-ic resin teeth were on average 70% higher than those measured for ceramic teeth. The shear bond strength was maximized by preparing samples with thermal-curing resin bases and resin teeth submitted to aluminium oxide sandblasting.