Background: Resin cements establish a strong durable bond between zirconia ceramic and hard tissues of teeth. It is essential to use primers with proper chemical composition before cementation.
Objectives: The aim of this study was to assess the influence of primer's chemical composition on the shear bond strength of zirconia ceramic to resin cements.
Material and methods: 132 zirconia specimens were randomly assigned to four groups. There were four resin systems used. They included resin cement and respective primer, dedicated to zirconia: Clearfil Ceramic Primer/Panavia F2.0, Monobond Plus/Multilink Automix, AZ - Primer/ResiCem, Z - Prime Plus/Duo-Link. In each group the protocol of cementation was as follows: application of primer to the zirconia surface and application of the respective resin cement in cylindric mold (dimensions: 3.0 mm height and 3.0 mm diameter). Then, the shear bond strength was evaluated and the failure type was assessed in lupes (×2.5 magnification), also random specimens under SEM. The Wilcoxon test was used to analyze the data, the level of significance was α = 0.05. Finally, the known chemical composition of each primer was analysed in reference to probable chemical bonds, which may occure between primers and zirconia.
Results: The mean shear bond strength between resin cements and zirconia was the highest for Z-Prime Plus/Duo-Link (8.24 ± 3,21 MPa) and lowest for Clearfil Ceramic Primer/Panavia F 2.0 (4.60 ± 2.21 MPa). The analysis revealed significant difference between all groups, except pair Clearfil Ceramic Primer/Panavia F 2.0 and AZ-Primer/ResiCem. The failure type in groups of Clearfil Ceramic Primer/Panavia F 2.0 and AZ-Primer/ResiCem was mainly adhesive, in groups Monobond Plus/ /Multilink Automix and Z-Prime Plus/Duo-Link mainly mixed. The chemical composition of primers affects different bond mechanisms between resin cements and zirconia.
Conclusions: The highest shear bond strength of resin cement to zirconia can be obtained for the primer composed of 10-Methacryloyloxydecyl dihydrogen phosphate (MDP) and carboxylic monomer - Biphenyl dimethacrylate (BPDM).