This study evaluated the efficiency of air abrasion alone and associated with phosphoric acid etching on tensile bond strength of a single-bottle adhesive/indirect composite restorative system (Bond 1/Alert) to human enamel. Forty enamel surfaces from extracted human third molars were assigned to 4 groups (n= 10). Mach 4.1 (Kreativ Inc.) air abrasion equipment was used for 20 s. A special system of rod pairs aligned in a specific apparatus was used for tensile strength tests, according to ISO/TR 11405 standard (1994) with some modifications. Bond strength means were: G1 (air abrasion + rinsing + condensable composite resin Alert) = 3.46 ± 0.83 MPa; G2 (air abrasion + rinsing + Bond 1 adhesive system + Alert) = 4.00 ± 1.60 MPa; G3 (air abrasion + rinsing + 37% phosphoric acid + rinsing + Bond 1 + Alert) = 20.80 ± 3.95 MPa; and G4 (37% phosphoric acid + rinsing + Bond 1 + Alert) = 17.00 ± 2.74 MPa. The statistical analysis by Kruskal-Wallis test revealed that G1 and G2 presented statistically significant difference (p< 0.05) from G3 and G4 (p<0.01) and G1 and G3 did not differ significantly (p> 0.05) from G2 and G4, respectively.
tensile bond strength; air abrasion; enamel
