Influence of plasma-based dry etching on the bond strength of Y-TZP ceramic.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the bond strength between an yttria-stabilized tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) ceramic and a luting agent when submitted to plasma etching surface treatment before and after thermocycling (TC) with 3000 cycles of 5°C-55°C. The null hypothesis was that the surface treatments and thermocycling would not influence the bond strength. A total of 160 Y-TZP ceramic blocks in 2 sizes (10 size 1 and 10 size 2 blocks in each group) were distributed into 8 groups: group C (control), no surface treatment; group C-TC, TC without prior surface treatment; group SAO, sandblasting with aluminum oxide (Al2O3); group SAO-TC, sandblasting with Al2O3 followed by TC; group SAOS, sandblasting with silica-coated Al2O3; group SAOS-TC, sandblasting with silica-coated Al2O3 followed by TC; group PE, plasma etching; and group PE-TC, plasma etching followed by TC.