The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of different surface treatment methods on the micro-tensile bond strength (μTBS) of resin-matrix ceramic (RMC) blocks repaired with resin composite. Three different prefabricated RMC blocks including Lava Ultimate (LU), Grandio Blocs (GB), and Shofu Block HC (HC) were thermo-cycled and divided into five surface treatment groups: Control (C), bur grinding (G), airborne particle abrasion (APA), Er,Cr:YSGG laser irritation (LI), and APA combined with LI (APA+LI). After surface treatments, topographic alterations were examined by scanning electron microscopy. Then, Universal Adhesive (Single Bond Universal) was applied and repair was simulated with nanohybrid composite (Grandio SO). Bonded specimens were cut into 1 mm2 sized beams (n = 16) and a μTBS test was conducted by using a universal test machine. Fracture types were evaluated by using a stereomicroscope. The bond- strength data was evaluated by two-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc test (α = 0.05). The μTBS values were significantly affected by the surface treatment variable and the interaction terms of the variables (p ≤ 0.001). However, no significant effect of RMC type was detected (p > 0.05). Among all materials, GBAPA+LI indicated the highest µTBS value. Except for the GBC, all surface treatments showed clinically acceptable bond-strength values. However, the surface treatments applied to GB and LU before the repair processes increased the repair bond-strength values while causing a negative effect for HC. In addition, LI and APA+LI can be applied as an alternative route compared to other procedures recommended by the manufacturer for surface preparation in intraoral RMC repair.
Keywords: Er,Cr:YSGG laser; airborne particle abrasion; micro-tensile bond strength; nanohybrid composite; resin-matrix ceramic.