Abstract
Purpose: To investigate the efficacy of Ivoclean as a ceramic cleansing agent, by assessing shear bond strength of pre-etched lithium disilicate (LD) ceramic to resin cement.Materials and Methods: Seventy LD discs (10x10x4mm) were fabricated and etched using 5% hydrofluoric acid (HF) for 20s. Ten specimens were not exposed to saliva and silicone disclosing medium (negative control). The other 60 specimens, divided into six groups (n=10), were exposed to saliva for 20s and silicone disclosing medium for 3min. Following contamination, 10 specimens were not cleansed (positive control). The remaining five groups were exposed to one of the five different cleansing agents: 96% isopropanol, 37% phosphoric acid-30s, 5% HF acid- 20s, 5% HF acid- 120s, and Ivoclean paste-20s. All specimens were treated with primer and bonded to a self-curing resin cement. Before shear bond strength testing, all specimens were thermocycled (3000 cycles; 5-55 degrees).Results: Contamination of pre-etched LD ceramic specimens significantly reduced the shear bond strength values from 22.390.38MPa (negative control) to 6.54 +/- 0.90MPa (positive control) (p<0.05). Cleansing of contaminated ceramic specimens with 5% HF acid [20s (19.28 +/- 1.06MPa) and 120s (20.04 +/- 1.09MPa)] and Ivoclean (18.30 +/- 0.97) provided significantly higher bond strength values than other cleansing methods with 37% phosphoric acid and 96% isopropanol (p<0.05).Conclusion: Ivoclean and 5% HF acid were found to be effective in cleansing of LD ceramic surface by demonstrating maximum increase in shear bond strength values as compared to contaminated LD ceramics.