The effect of a root-dentin pretreatment technique combining PIPS with MTAD aiming to improve the bond strength of glass fiber post.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the combined effect of MTAD and photon-induced photoacoustic streaming (PIPS) technique on the smear layer removal and the bond strength of glass fiber post. Fifty-five human mandibular premolars were chosen. After root canal therapy and post space preparation, the teeth were equally divided to five groups according to the methods of root-dentin pretreatment: G1: distilled water (control); G2: 2.5% NaOCl+17% EDTA; G3: MTAD; G4: PIPS; G5: MTAD+PIPS. One sample was randomly selected from each group, and scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to observe the microscopic morphology of the coronal, middle and apical level of the root-dentin. The remaining ten samples from each group were glued to glass fiber posts, and the bond strength was assessed by push-out test. SEM evaluation showed that the most complete smear layer removal was found in MTAD + PIPS group, especially in coronal third. Push-out test results exhibited that there was a statistically significant interaction between the experimental groups and root canal third (p < .0005). Significant differences could be found among five groups (p < .05): G5 > G4 > G3 > G2 > G1. G5 had the highest bond strength. In conclusion, post space pretreatments with MTAD or PIPS technique can significantly remove smear layer and improve the bond strength of glass fiber post, and combination of them works best.