effect of dentin surface treatment using a non-thermal argon plasma brush on the bond strength of a self-adhesive resin composite

Background and aim: improving the bond strength at the resindentin interface is an important challenge in adhesive dentistry. this study examined the effect of lowpower, nonthermal atmospheric pressure plasma (ntapp) treatments on the adhesion of a selfadhesive resin composite to dentin.materials and methods: in this experimental invitro study, buccal enamel of extracted bovine incisors was removed using a highspeed diamond bur. the specimens were randomly divided into two groups according to the plasma treatment and thermocycling. the nonthermal atmospheric argon plasma brush was used in this study. one subgroup was subjected to the microshear bond strength ( micro;sbs) test after 24 hours, whereas the other subgroup was subjected to artificial aging with thermocycling for 5000 cycles before being tested. each specimen was attached to a testing jig and loaded at a crosshead speed of 1.0 mm/minute in a universal testing machine until failure occurred. data were analyzed using twofactor repeated measures analysis of variance (anova).results: the results of mu;sbs testing showed that with plasma treatment, the average mu;sbs increased to 34.20 plusmn;12.12 mpa compared to 19.47 plusmn;7.4 mpa in the controls (p=0.002). after 5000 cycles of thermocycling, the adhesivedentin bonding strengths of the plasmatreated specimens slightly decreased from 34.20 plusmn;12.12 mpa to 33.64 plusmn;5.6 mpa (p=0.886), while the strengths of the untreated specimens reduced from 19.47 plusmn;7.4 mpa to 19.10 plusmn;5.1 mpa (p=0.461). plasma treatment improved the micro;sbs compared to the control group. after thermocycling, the micro;sbs did not decrease in the plasma and control (nonplasma) groups.conclusion: plasma treatment using ntapp improves the adhesion of selfadhesive flowable resin composites to dentin.