Effects of silica-coating on surface topography and bond strength of porcelain fused to CAD/CAM pure titanium

The aim of this study was to evaluate the shear bond strength of porcelain fusing to titanium and the effects of surface treatment on surface structure of titanium. In the shear bond strength test, titanium surface treatments were: conventional, silica-coating without bonding agent, and silica-coating with bonding agent. Titanium surface treatments for analysis by the atomic force microscope (AFM) were: polishing, alumina sandblasting and silica-coating. The shear bond strength value of silica-coating with bonding agent group showed significantly higher than that of other groups. In AFM observation results, regular foamy structure which is effective for wetting was only observed in silica-coating. Therefore, this structure might indicate silicon. Silica-coating renders forms a nanoscopic regular foamy structure, involved in superhydrophilicity, to titanium surface, which is markedly different from the irregular surface generated by alumina sandblasting.