Purpose: To investigate the impact of pretreatment and conditioning on shear bond strength (SBS), surface free energy (SFE) and surface roughness (SR) between polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and cold-cured polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA).
Materials and Methods: PEEK substrates (Dentokeep PEEK Disc, nt-trading) were air abraded with Al2O3 particles of different grain sizes applied with varying pressure at 1) 0.2 MPa – 50 µm Al2O3; 2) 0.4 MPa – 50 µm Al2O3; 3) 0.2 MPa – 110 µm Al2O3; 4) 0.4 MPa – 110 µm Al2O3; or 5) without air abrasion (n = 172/group). Surface properties were quantified using SFE and SR (n = 10/group), and scanning electron microscope imaging (n = 2/group). Substrates were conditioned with a) Visio.link (VL, Bredent); b) Scotchbond Universal (SU, 3M Oral Care); c) Bonding Fluid (BF, Schütz Dental); or d) without conditioning (WC; n = 40/subgroup) and bonded to the polymer (Futura Jet, Schütz Dental). SBS and fracture types were determined before and after 10,000 thermal cycles (n = 20/subgroup). Univariate ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis test, Mann-Whitney U-test, Kaplan-Meier survival estimates, and Weibull distribution were computed (p < 0.05). Ciba-Geigy tables and the chi-squared test were used to analyze fracture type distributions.
Results: An increase in particle size and pressure resulted in similar or increased SBS, Weibull characteristic strength, and Weibull moduli (p < 0.001 – 0.046). The lowest results were observed for the control group (without air abrasion), while pretreatment with 0.4 MPa – 110 µm Al2O3 presented the highest values (p < 0.001). In comparison with the other conditioning procedures, VL showed high (p < 0.001 – 0.03), and SU and WC low SBS (p < 0.001 – 0.006). Although it did not influence SFE, an increase in particle size and pressure led to an increased SR (p < 0.001).
Conclusion: Pretreatment with 0.4 MPa – 110 µm Al2O3 can be recommended to increase bonding properties between PEEK and PMMA. Application of adhesives such as VL can enhance SBS further.