Do You Need HF?
Most products in this category still include hydrofluoric acid (HF) in their kits, but HF has no effect on zirconia. On the other hand, while these initial bond strengths are certainly not meaningless, the durability of the repairs completed with and without the help of HF still needs to be determined.
Bond Strength Test
While ease of use always is important, these products, above all, must perform. To compare their performance, we followed their directions and compared bond strength to our control, which was bonded as follows:
1. Ceramco II porcelain was sandblasted with aluminum oxide for 10 seconds.
2. Rinsed with water for 30 seconds.
3. Air-dried for five seconds.
4. 9.5% HF gel for one minute.
5. Rinsed with water for 10 seconds.
6. Air-dried for five seconds.
7. Silane applied for five seconds.
8. Air-dried for five seconds.
9. Heliobond applied.
10. Light-cured for 20 seconds.
11. Composite applied.
12. Light-cured for 40 seconds.
Control Bond Strength = 26.0 MPa
Please see the commentary for each product to see how it compared to our control.