An investigation of shear bond strengths of various resin-bonded inner surface rest seat designs for removable partial dentures.

Results and conclusions that can be drawn from this study are: All smooth, mesh, and seating preparation groups produced mean bond strengths significantly greater than that of the control group (p less than 0.01). The cast mesh rest seats exhibited significantly greater bond strengths at 24 hours (p = .0072). However, at 30 days, statistically significant differences between the three groups were not evident. Mean bond strengths for the electrolytically etched rest seat groups increased significantly at 30 days compared with the 24-hour means (p less than .05). These results suggest that an electrolytically etched resin-bonded rest seat can easily withstand the functional stresses exerted by a removable partial denture. The incorporation of seating preparation on an abutment tooth for an etched resin-bonded lingual rest seat seems to offer no advantage in terms of retentive strength.