Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of etching time, environmental temperature and humidity on the adhesion of composite resin to glass-ionomer cement. Two chemical cure composite resins (Clearfil F II and Microrest AP) and two glass-ionomer cements (Fuji ionomer Type I and KET AC-CEM) were used as the experimental materials. The experiment is performed in 3 stages: The first stage is to bond composite resins to glass-ionomer cements, and the surface was not etched, and etched for 20 seconds, 40 seconds, and 60 seconds. Then specimens are stored in distilled water at $37^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours to measure tensile strength. The second stage is to choose the one group that had the highest tensile strength from the first stage and prepare two experimental groups: One group with composite resin bonded to glass-ionomer cement without etching and bonding agent application and the other with composite resin bonded to glass-ionomer cement with etching but without any bonding agent application. The specimens are stored in distilled water at $37^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours and tensile strength is measured. The third stage is to choose group that had the highest tensile strength from the first stage experiment, and bond composite resin to glass-ionomer cement at $24^{\circ}C$ 44%, $30^{\circ}C$ 44%, $30^{\circ}C$ 80%, and $32^{\circ}C$ 92%. The storage time of specimens is to bond immediately after storage, then changed to 30 sec., 60 sec., and 120 sec.. Specimens are stored in distilled water at $37^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours and their tensile strength are measured again. The following results were obtained: 1. As the etching time increases, the tensile bond strength between glass-ionomer cement and composite resin increase, and the tensile bond strength is the highest when acid etched for 60 minutes (P < 0.05). 2. After acid etching for 60 minutes, the tensile strength of the group with bonding agent was stronger than that without bonding agent application (P < 0.05). 3. The tensile strength of Clearfil F II was stronger than that of Microrest AP. 4. It was observed that the tensile bond strength is not affected by different storage time with different temperature and humidity. 5. As the humidity was increased, the tensile bond strength between glass-ionomer cement and composite resin decreased (P < 0.05).