Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the tooth bond characteristics of a glass-ionomer cement. The effects of the storage time after extraction of experimental tooth, environmental humidity at setting and smear layer on the bond strengths of the glass-ionomer cement on human tooth were examined. Unlike composite resins, the storage time after extraction of experimental tooth had no significant effect on bond strengths of the glass-ionomer cement. This suggests that the in vivo and in vitro bond strengths of the glass-ionomer cement are similar. The bond strengths of the glass-ionomer cement to human tooth varied slightly with the environmental humidity. However this effect was much smaller than that seen in composite resins. The bond strengths of the glass-ionomer cement to dentin showed a slight increase with removal of smear layer from dentin surface.
