Bonding of autopolymerizing acrylic resins to magnetic stainless steel alloys using metal conditioner.

OBJECTIVES: The shear bond strengths of a barbituric acid derivative-activated autopolymerizing acrylic resin to two magnetic stainless steel alloys using a metal conditioner were investigated.

METHODS: The surfaces of the two magnetic stainless steel alloys were abraded with 600-grit silicon carbide paper. The surface preparations were: Group 1 (without preparation), Group 2 (airborne particle abrasion with 50 microm alumina), and Group 3 (airborne particle abrasion followed by priming with a metal conditioner). The alloys were bonded with a barbituric acid derivative-activated autopolymerizing acrylic resin. For comparison, airborne particle abrasion and bonding with a tri-n-butylborane-initiated autopolymerizing acrylic resin (Group 4), as well as airborne particle abrasion followed by priming with a metal conditioner and bonding with the same resin (Group 5) were added. Half of the specimens were thermocycled up to 10,000 cycles. The shear bond strengths were determined.

RESULTS: Group 3 had significantly improved shear bond strengths with the barbituric acid derivative-activated autopolymerizing acrylic resin to both stainless steel alloys. Although there were no significant differences in the bond strength among Groups 3-5 before thermocycling, the decrease in the bond strength of Group 3 was considerably greater than that of Groups 4 or 5 after thermocycling for both stainless steel alloys.

CONCLUSIONS: Significant improvements in the bond strength of the barbituric acid derivative-activated autopolymerizing acrylic resin to two magnetic stainless steel alloys were achieved by airborne particle abrasion followed by priming with the metal conditioner. The bond durability to this resin, however, was inferior to that to a tri-n-butylborane-initiated autopolymerizing acrylic resin.