dental materials 27 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1038–1044 available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/dema The inﬂuence of laser-textured dentinal surface on bond strength Arman Samad-Zadeh a , Masly Harsono a , Andrey Belikov b,d , Ksenia V. Shatilova b , Alexey Skripnik b , Paul Stark a , Christophe Egles a,c,1 , Gerard Kugel a,∗ a Department of Research Administration, Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, USA b Saint Petersburg State University of Information Technology, Mechanics and Optics, Saint Petersburg, Russia c Division of Cancer Biology and Tissue Engineering, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology, Tufts University, School of Dental Medicine, Boston, MA, USA d Dental Photonics, Inc., Norwood, MA, USA article info Article history: Received 21 December 2010 Received in revised form 7 June 2011 Accepted 13 July 2011 Keywords: Adhesion Dental adhesive Composite resin Dentin Bond strength Lasers Cavity preparation abstract Objective. To assess the inﬂuence of laser-textured surfaces on the adhesion of composite to dentin after being rotary prepared. Methods. Thirty healthy teeth were kept in 0.1% thymol solution prior to being ground down to dentin to create a 4 × 4 mm 2 ﬂat surface. Teeth were divided into 3 groups (n = 10). Groups 1 and 2 utilized the prototype Erbium doped, Yttrium–Aluminum–Garnet Er:YAG laser by Dental Photonics, Inc. A single pulse was delivered to each spot to create an equally spaced square 4 × 4 mm 2 matrix of micro craters. All craters had 100 m diameter/45 m depth; two different spacing patterns were prepared in Groups 1 and 2. In Group 1, distance between crater centers was 50 m; Group 2 had 100 m. In Group 3 (control), 10 samples were prepared without laser texturing. G-bond (GC America) was applied to testing area of all samples in all groups according to manufacturer’s instructions. Bonding resin was applied and shear-bond strength tests were employed using an Instron machine to measure adhesive strength. Results. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the 3 groups. Pair wise t- tests implementing the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons found a statistically signiﬁcant difference between Group 3 and Group 2 (p = 0.019) but no statistically signiﬁcant difference between Group 3 and Group 1 (p = 0.263) or Group 1 and Group 2 (p = 0.743). Signiﬁcance. The bond strengths between bonded composite to laser-textured dentinal sur- faces with larger spacing patterns are greater than that of non-textured surfaces. © 2011 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Modern dentistry has been concerned with reducing patients’ risk of caries, preserving tooth structure, and noninvasive con- ∗ Corresponding author at: Tufts University School of Dental Medicine, Room No. 1015, 1 Kneeland Street, Boston, MA 02111, USA. Tel.: +1 617 636 0870; fax: +1 617 636 6511. E-mail address: gerard.kugel@tufts.edu (G. Kugel). 1 Current address: UMR-CNRS 6600, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, France. servative techniques such as composite restorative material. However, the beneﬁt of this treatment relies upon the ability of the restorative material to promote an appropriate sealing and remain completely intact and bonded to the surface, thus increase the longevity of the restoration. 0109-5641/$ – see front matter © 2011 Academy of Dental Materials. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.dental.2011.07.005