Comparison of the Microtensile Bond Strength of a Polyetherketoneketone Post Cemented with Various Surface Treatments and Resin Cements

Objectives: The aim of this in-vitro research was to evaluate the microtensile bond strength in the newly introduced PEKK tooth post with various surface treatments and resin cements. A fiberglass tooth post was included in order to compare it with PEKK as a possible post material.
Methods: The microtensile bond strengths of the fiberglass post (FRC Postec Plus) and the PEKK post (Pekkton®) were tested using three kinds of self-adhesive resin cements (G-CEM LinkAce, Multilink Speed, and RelyX U200) and one self-etching resin cement (PANAVIA F2.0). The surface treatments of the fiberglass posts were processed according to the manufacturer’s recommendations (F1, application of 37% phosphoric acid etching gel and silanization). For the PEKK post groups, various surface treatments were performed like no surface treatment (P1), sandblasting (P2), silica-coating and silanization (P3), and sandblasting with a composite primer (P4).
Results: In the surface treatment, PEKK posts with silica coating and silane treatment (P3) showed a significantly higher microtensile bond strength (mean MPa: 18.09, p < 0.05). The highest microtensile bond strength was shown when the PEKK posts were treated with a silica coating and silane treatment and cemented with RelyX U200 (mean MPa: 22.22). The PEKK posts with surface treatments of silica-coating and silanization or sandblasting displayed superior microtensile bond strengths (mean MPa: 18.09 and 16.25, respectively) compared to the conventional fiberglass posts (mean MPa: 14.93, p < 0.05).
Conclusions: Within the limitation of this study, the PEKK posts with a surface treatment displayed superior MTBS values compared to the conventional fiberglass posts. Additionally, when the PEKK posts were blasted with silica-modified aluminum oxide and coated with a silane coupling agent, the bonding strength to the resin cement was enhanced the most effectively.