ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To test in vitro the shear bond strength of resin teeth to an acrylic resin denture base given different ridgelap surface treatments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Ninety rectangular dies were made with wax and traditionally invested in metallic or plastic flasks. The stone molds were covered with silicone, in which were included an acrylic molar with a wax stick fixed on the ridge lap surface. After deflasking, the wax sticks were removed, the teeth were cleaned with detergent, the ridge lap surface was submitted to different treatments (unmodified, bur-cut grooves, aluminum oxide particle sandblasting, monomer swelling, and primer swelling), and the teeth were replaced in the silicone molds. Metallic flasks were placed in a thermopolymerizing unit to polymerize heat-curing denture-base polymer, and plastic flasks were placed in a domestic microwave oven at 900 W to polymerize microwaveable denture base polymer. After deflasking, the specimens were submitted to the shear bond test in an Instron machine at a cross-speed of 1 mm/min. Results were submitted to ANOVA and Tukey's test (5%). RESULTS: Shear bond strength values were influenced by the ridge-lap surface treatments only in the microwaved polymer. Sandblasting + monomer swelling and sandblasting + primer swelling interactions yielded lower strengths for microwaved polymer. Only the unmodified surfaces presented a significant difference when the resins were compared, where the microwaved polymer showed a higher value. CONCLUSION: Different tooth ridge-lap surface treatments promoted different strengths of the tooth/resin bond.
