Effectiveness of a silane coupling agent in a resin luting cement

The objective of this study was to investigate a new silane-containing self-adhesive resin luting cement with both shear bond strength and contact angle studies to determine if silane in a resin cement would chemically bond to a lithium disilicate surface. The silane-containing cement, Panavia SA Cement Universal (Kuraray, Tokyo, Japan) was tested against a control case where a traditional silane treatment was paired with resin-luting cement, Duo-Link Universal (Bisco Inc., Schaumburg, IL, USA) with immediate shear bond strength testing on both polished and etched lithium disilicate, as well as after thermocycling. It was determined that micromechanical retention provided a substantial contribution to bond strength. However, after an aging study with 20,000 thermocycles and then storage for 6 months in 37 °C water, the silane-containing, self-adhesive resin cement significantly decreased in shear bond strength when compared to the control. From contact angle studies, while it was shown that the paste containing the silane did effectively increase hydrophobicity of the treated lithium disilicate surface, it required over 3 h contact time, which was not representative of clinical use.