OBJECTIVETo investigate the effectiveness of different surface treatments that could promote the bond strength of composite resin to commercially pure titanium.

METHODSThe 24 casting pure titanium specimen were randomly divided into four groups: Smooth group, rough group, acid etching smooth group, acid etching rough group. Each group had six specimens. In the different groups, the specimens were treated respectively under different surface treatments. The specimens of rough group was sandblasted, the acid etching smooth group was treated by acid etching, the acid etching rough group was treated by acid etching after sandblasting, the smooth group had no treatment. After surface treatment, the casting pure titanium specimens that were veneered by composite resin became titanium-composite resin specimen. Then the bond strengths were evaluated by universal testing machine and the surfaces were observed by scanning electron microscope including titanium surface appearance and titanium surface appearance of different groups after shear test.

RESULTSThe bond strengths of smooth group, rough group, acid etching smooth group, acid etching rough group were (3.08 +/- 0.45), (6.05 +/- 0.74), (6.27 +/- 0.80), (10.16 +/- 0.82) MPa, respectively. The statistical analysis showed that the bond strengths in rough group, acid etching smooth group, acid etching rough group were higher than in smooth group (P < 0.01). The highest bond strength was the acid etching rough group. There were no significant differences in the bond strength between rough group and acid etching smooth group (P > 0.05). There were some different titanium surface appearances in each group before and after testing.

CONCLUSIONTitanium surface treatment of sandblasting and etching can improve the bond strength between titanium and composite resin. The pre-treatment of sandblasting before etching is an effective modification method of titanium for bonding to composite resin.