Microtensile bond strength of a resin-based fissure sealant to Er,Cr:YSGG laser-etched primary enamel

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Er,Cr:YSGG laser pre-treatment alone, or associated with acid-etching, on the microtensile bond strength of a resin-based fissure sealant to primary enamel. Twenty-five human primary molars were randomly divided into five groups including (1) 35 % acid etching, (2) 2.5-W laser etching, (3) 3.5-W laser etching, (4) 2.5-W laser etching + acid etching, and (5) 3.5-W laser etching + acid etching. Er,Cr:YSGG laser was used at a wavelength of 2.780 nm and pulse duration of 140–200 μs with a repetition rate of 20 Hz. Following surface pre-treatment, the fissure sealant (ClinPro™, 3M Dental Products) was applied. Each tooth was sectioned and subjected to microtensile testing. Kruskal–Wallis test was used for statistical analysis. The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. The microtensile bond strength values of group 1 were significantly higher than those of group 2, while no statistically significant difference was detected between groups 1, 3, 4, and 5. It was concluded that 3.5-W laser etching produced results comparable to conventional acid etching technique, whereas 2.5-W laser etching was not able to yield adequate bonding performance.