The adhesiveness between the resin cements and the dentin surfaces was studied. As the resin cement, Bistite resin cement (BI), Super-Bond D Liner plus (SB), and Imperva bond dual cement (ID) were used. The dentin surface was polished with # 1000 SiC paper and then pretreated with etching agents, conditioner or primers of each resin cement not only according to the manufacture's instruction but also by the various kinds of the combination of etching agents, conditioner and primers. After these pretreatments, each resin cement was applied to the pretreated dentin surface. The test samples were immersed in 37°C water for one day, and the shear bond strengths were measured by a universal testing machine at a cross head speed of 2mm/min. The effectiveness of original self-etching dentin primer, 10 T-2 (10% tannic acid-2% FeCl3-35% HEMA aqueous solution) on the adhesion of resin cements to the dentin was also examined by the method described above.
The results were as follows;
1. When BI was used, the pretreatment to dentin with conditioner and primer had the highest mean bond strength of 6.0 MPa, and that with the combination of 10 T-2 and photo-bond had the mean value of 6.1 MPa.
2. When SB was used, the pretreatment to dentin with etching and primer had the highest mean value of 10.9 MPa, and pretreatment to dentin with the combination of 10 T-2 and photo-bond had the mean value of 9.2 MPa, which caused the cohesive failure of dentin.
3. When ID was used, the pretreatment to dentin with etching agent, primer and bonding agent had the highest mean value of 7.9 MPa, and that with the combination of 10 T-2 and photo-bond had the mean value of 8.9 MPa.
4. The pretreatment of dentin with the conditioner of DI, etching agents of SB or ID removed the smear layer, but 10 T-2 pretreatment preserved the smear layer on the dentin.