The effect of plasma polymer coating using atmospheric-pressure glow discharge on the shear bond strength of composite resin to ceramic

If plasma technology can come out of the vacuum chamber and plasma can be extruded through a small pencil-type torch, it can be applied widely to dental practices. For this study, we designed a small pencil-type non-thermal atmospheric-pressure glow discharge plasma torch. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of plasma polymer coating on the adhesion of composite resin to feldspathic porcelain. The effect of plasma polymer coating was evaluated using shear bond strength (SBS) test. Contact angle measurements and fracture mode analysis were also performed. Among the groups treated with plasma polymer coating, the SBS of the adhesive (Adper Scotchbond Multi-Purpose, 3M ESPE) to the ceramic surface pre-treated sequentially with water plasma and triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA) plasma in helium gas was significantly higher than that of the adhesive to the untreated surface (p < 0.05). In this group, the predominant fracture mode was mixed fracture, where small cohesively fractured fragments of ceramic were dispersed on the adhesively fractured flat adhesive surface. However, the SBS values of all the plasma polymer-coated groups were lower than those obtained through a routine porcelain bonding procedure with HF acid and silane coupling agent (p < 0.05). The non-thermal atmospheric-pressure plasma polymer coating technique was found to have a potential promoting adhesion to dental materials.