It is required to obtain a sturdy and resistantly res-in/zirconia bond for successfully repaired zirconia restorations. The present study was undertaken to eval-uate the bond strength of restored composite res-in/cemented all-ceramic using different ceramic repair systems to zirconia core materials after 24 hours of storage in water and 5000 thermal cycles. The results of this study represented that there is a difference among the repair systems and repair method with the restoration of the composite resin acted better than repair method with the cementation of the ceramic. For this reason, the null hypotheses were partially rejected.
Oral cavity warmth changes may cause mechanical stresses and fracturing then their propagation in resin-including materials, especially due to differences in the thermal expansion coefficient of the filler and resin matrix 36,37. Concomitant use of water storage and thermal cycling are generally utilized to mimic intrao-ral environments. This aging process allows assessment of the bonding steady of the resin-zirconia. Clinically aging will directly affect the mechanical, chemical, and physical features of the material and thus its repairabi-lity. The number of cycles in the literature varies between studies and it has been reported that 5000 cycles correspond to an in vivo aging term of 6 months 38. Thermal cycling has been reported to decrease bond strength in general 39. The test specimens in our study were exposed to 24 hours water storage and 5000 thermal cycles before the SBSt.
Different bond strength measurement techniques are used in in-vitro studies such as shear, tensile, microten-sile, and three-point bending in dentistry. The SBSt is more generally used than the alternatives due to the method’s ease of use, basic, rapid, repeatable, and requirements no furthermore sample processing of the densely sintered zirconia. Most contributors have cho-sen SBSt in their studies that are bound up with intrao-ral ceramic repairment30,40. SBSt was used in the present study to measure the repair bond strength of the repaired specimens.
The supply of an upper and resistant bond strength between ceramic and repairing material is very im-portant in dental restorations to provide their clinical achievement. Mechanical and chemical retention is necessary to succeed in upper bond strength between ceramic and repairing materials. Mechanical retention can be obtained with acid etching, burs (diamond, stone, etc.), and sandblasting. Chemical retention can be obtained with a primer and silane coupling agent. Acid etching and then primer or silane agent imple-mentation is the most common ceramic surface condi-tioning 23. The whole ceramic repair systems used in the present study contain acid etching and silane coup-ling agents, outside of the Cimara Zircon repair system. Cimara Zircon repair system does not need acid etc-hing, which is the concern of the producers.
Gul and Altınok-Uygun 41 applied the surface treat-ments of different repair kits to different cad/cam ce-ramic blocks in their study and then nanohybrid resin composite was layered onto treated blocks surfaces. The samples were subjected to thermal cycling prior to the implementation of the repair systems and after the implementation of the composite resin. After microten-sile bond strength test was applied to the bar-shaped (1 × 1 × 12 mm3) blocks. In their study, the bond strength values of all repair kits were compared. The obtained values are ordered from the highest to the lowest as Cimara Zircon, Clearfil, Bisco repair kits. The other different results may be due to the use of micro-tensile bond strength test (MTBSt).
In the study of Kumchai et al 26. beveled cylindrical shaped (Ø 10.5 mm, height 7.5 mm) veneered Zirconia crowns were repaired with bonded ceramic and restora-tive composite resin, similar to our study. In this study, the ceramic cementation process was applied to the beveled porcelain surface, while in our study it was applied to the fully exposed zirconia surface. In this study, veneered zirconia crowns repaired with cement-ed CAD/CAM ceramic materials had majorly upper bond strength than veneered crowns repaired with resin composite. In our study, the repair procedures per-formed only with the Bisco kit are parallel to the re-sults of this study. The reason for the lower bond strength values in the repair method made with ceramic cementation of Clearfil and Cimara Zircon repair kits in our study may be the differences in the surface treatments with this study or the use of different resin cement and composite resin.
In the study by Cınar and Kırmalı 39 disc shaped veneer ceramic, zirconia, and veneer ceramic-zirconia specimens (7 mm in diameter and 3 mm in height) were bonded to composite resin using clearfil repair kit after different thermal cycles. Similar to our study using the Clearfil repair kit, the bond strength value of the repair performed on the zirconia surface was higher than on the ceramic surface.
In the study performed by Kocaagaoglu et al 42 in which the same repair kits used in our study were used, surface treatments applied for each repair system were to disk-shaped zirconia ceramic, alumina ceramic, glass ceramic materials (10 mm in diameter, 2 mm thick), and then the composite resin was incrementally con-densed onto the infrastructure material surfaces. In this study, although the bond strength ranking of the repair kits in the alumina ceramic group was similar to the repair group made with ceramic cementation in our study, the bond strength ranking of the repair kits ap-plied to zirconia was the opposite of our study (Bis-co>Cimara Zircon>Clearfil). The reason for the differ-ent results may be the difference in sample sizes or the application of more thermal cycles in our study.
In another study performed by Kırmalı et al 40, dif-ferent intra-oral repair systems were applied to the disc-shaped zirconia surfaces (7 mm in diameter and 3 mm in height) and then resin composite built-up. In this study, in which all repair kits used in our study were used, bond strengths were listed as Cimara Zircon (17.31±3.62 MPa) > Clearfil (16.97±2.68 MPa) > Bis-co Z-Prime Plus (14.92±2.78 MPa). Although the bond strength values were lower in our study, the lowest bond strength value was found in the Bisco kit, similar to the study in the repair method performed with com-posite restoration. The reason of these different results may be the thermal aging application in our study.
If there are many cracks on the surface of the coating ceramic remaining after the fracture, due to the attenua-tion in the unity of the construction, fracture creation may happen again after repairs. It has been reported that fractures after intraoral repair with composite are caused by masticating forces, trauma, or wrong bond-ing processes 43. Prior to starting the repair proce-dure, the reason of the fracture such as bruxism and premature occlusal contacts in the lateral movements must be detected and removed in order to refrain from unsuccess. Additionally, suitable ceramic repair mate-rial and surface conditioning are crucial for long-term clinical achievement 44.
Limitations of this study:
1. Not using saliva; The bond strength of a resin material is sensitive to mechanical or chemical ef-fects in intraoral circumstances 17,
2. Not using the chewing simulator; The shearing test was not able to simulate the loading strengths alone owing to formed during chewing non-homogeneous stress dispersion 44,
3. Not using the micro-tensile bond strength (MTBS); SBS outcomes in upper values of variety according to MTBS because of the wider bonding surface field analyzed in the shear test. This wider bonding surface has more defects than narrower surfaces in MBTS 45.
Other directions of the test, such as the influence of repair dimension, loading angulation, and periodic fatigue must be conducted for a more exhaustive as-sessment of repair systems. Further in vitro and in vivo studies should be studied to identify the right repair methods using more compositions of repair systems, testing devices, specimen materials, and sample design 44,45.