Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of aging and alumina-particle air abrasion at different pressures on the bond strength of two luting composites to a translucent 3Y-TZP zirconia.
Materials and Methods: Half of the 192 disk-shaped zirconia specimens were aged in an autoclave (group A) for 20 h (134°C, 2 bar), and the other half was not aged (group N). For each group, a different surface treatment was applied: as-sintered (group SIN), alumina-particle air abrasion either at 1 bar (group 1B) or at 2.5 bar (group 2.5B). Disks were bonded to Plexiglas tubes filled with composite resin using a phosphate monomer-based luting composite (group SA) or with a separate phosphate monomer containing primer before using a phosphate–monomer-free luting composite (group V5). All specimens were subjected to tensile bond strength testing (TBS) before and after thermocycling.
Results: There were no statistically significant differences caused by autoclave aging for the test groups before thermocycling, except for the A-SIN-SA group, where the TBS decreased significantly. The variation of the aluminaparticle air abrasion pressure showed no statistically significant effect, except in the N-1B-V5 group, where TBS was significantly lower than N-2.5B-V5. After thermocycling, the TBS of most groups decreased significantly. Specimens of the primer group, which were abraded at 1 bar, showed a significant decrease in TBS in comparison with alumina-particle air abrasion at 2.5 bar.
Conclusion: Twenty hours of autoclave aging had almost no influence on the bond strength of the test groups. For the primer/resin bonding system, higher pressure during alumina-particle air abrasion might help obtain a higher and more durable bond strength to zirconia.