The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the effect of laser irradiation as well as other surface treatment methods on the microtensile bond strength of a dental zirconia ceramic to the two types of resin cements. Zirconia ceramic blocks (ICE Zirkon) were sintered according to the manufacturer's instructions and duplicated in resin composites. The ceramic specimens were divided into four groups according to the following surface treatments: no surface treatment (control), sandblasting with alumina, silica coating plus silanization, and Nd:YAG laser irradiation. The specimens were divided equally and then bonded with Panavia F2.0 (self-etching resin cement) and Clearfil SA Luting (self-adhesive resin cement) to the composite blocks. The bonded ceramic-composite blocks were stored in distilled water at 37 °C for 72 h, cut to prepare bar-shaped specimens with a bonding area of approximately 1 mm(2), and thermocycled for 3000 cycles between 5 and 55 °C, and the microtensile bond strengths were measured using a universal testing machine. The data were analyzed by ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test. The results showed that the self-adhesive resin cement used in this study did not improve the microtensile bond strength when the zirconia surface was sandblasted by alumina. The use of the Nd:YAG laser did not enhance the bond strength between the zirconia and both types of resin cements. In addition, silica coating of the zirconia surfaces plus silane application significantly improved the bond strength regardless of the type of resin cement utilized.

The efficiency of high-power LED light in polymerization of the resin cement used in this study was comparable to the high-power QTH light only with a longer exposure time. A reduced curing time of 20 seconds with high-power LED light for photopolymerizing the dual-cured resin cement under ceramic restorations with a minimum 2-mm thickness is not recommended.