Early hardness and shear bond strength of dual-cure resin cement light cured through resin overlays with different dentin-layer thicknesses.

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether dentin-layer thickness of resin overlays could affect the early hardness and shear bond strength of dual-cure resin cement (DCRC, RelyX ARC) after light curing with light curing units (LCUs) of various power densities: Optilux 360 (360), Elipar Freelight 2 (FL2), and Elipar S10 (S10). Resin overlays were fabricated using an indirect composite resin (Sinfony) with a dentin layer, an enamel layer, and a translucent layer of 0.5 mm thickness each (0.5-0.5-0.5) or of 0.2 mm, 0.5 mm, and 0.8 mm thickness (0.2-0.5-0.8), respectively. The DCRC was light cured for 40 seconds through the overlays, and surface hardness and shear bond strength to bovine dentin were tested 10 minutes after the start of light curing. Surface hardness was higher when the DCRC was light cured through the 0.2-0.5-0.8 combination than when the DCRC was light cured through the 0.5-0.5-0.5 combination with all LCUs. The ratio of upper surface hardness of DCRC light cured through resin overlays relative to the upper surface hardness of DCRC light cured directly was more than 90% only when the DCRC was light cured with S10 through the 0.2-0.5-0.8 combination. The shear bond strength value was higher when the DCRC was light cured with S10 through the 0.2-0.5-0.8 combination than when light cured with S10 through the 0.5-0.5-0.5 combination. This study indicates that reducing the dentin-layer thickness while increasing the translucent-layer thickness of resin inlays can increase the photopolymerization of DCRC, thereby increasing the early bond strength of resin inlays to dentin.