Adhesion between glass fiber posts and resin cement: evaluation of bond strength after various pre-treatments

Purpose. To evaluate surface roughness and bond strength of glass fiber posts to a resin cement after various surface treatments. Materials and methods. Sixty individually formed glass fiber posts with a diameter of 1.5 mm and a length of 20 mm were used for this study. They were randomly assigned to six groups of pre-treatment (n = 10/group): Group C, untreated (control); Group SB, sandblasted; Group SC, silica coated; Group HF, hydrofluoric acid-etched; Group N, Nd: YAG laser irradiated; Group E, Er: YAG laser irradiated. Surface roughness of the posts was measured before and after pre-treatment. The posts were then bonded to resin cement and tensile bond strengths were determined in a universal testing machine. For statistical analysis, two-way ANOVA and post-hoc comparison tests (alpha = 0.05) were performed. Results. The highest bond strength value was observed in group HF, followed by group SC. There was a statistically significant difference in bond strength between group C and groups HF, SC and E (p < 0.001, p = 0.002 and p = 0.041, respectively). Posts of group SB and group N showed the highest surface roughness. Conclusions. The findings of the present study reveal that hydrofluoric acid-etching, silica coating and Er: YAG laser irradiation provided a significant increase in bond strength between glass fiber posts and resin cement.