Microtensile bond strength of resin-post interfaces created with interpenetrating polymer network posts or cross-linked posts

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the microtensile strength of composite bonded to interpenetrating polymer network (IPN) or cross-linked glass fibre posts and to observe the failure modes by using light and scanning electron microscopy. Twenty posts containing IPN resin matrix and 20 posts containing cross-linked epoxy polymer matrix were used for testing. One half of the posts from each type was treated with Stick Resin, the other half was treated with OptiBond. Composite resin was used to build up a block on the bonding surface. Tensile strength data was analysed statistically using the non-parametric Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. The distribution of failure modes as a function of post type/bonding agent was evaluated using the chi(2) test. The mean tensile strength values were lower for the groups bonded with OptiBond and higher for the groups bonded with Stick Resin (p = 0.017), the type of post used had no statistical significance (p = 0.263). All the IPN posts showed cohesive failure within the post The cross-linked posts demonstrated a higher number of adhesive failures and lower number of cohesive failures within the post (chi(2) = 0.0001). Stick Resin was more effective than OptiBond in bonding composite cores to fibre posts. Post fracture was the failure mode of IPN posts, debonding of the composite core was the failure mode of most of cross-linked posts. These different failure modes may appear clinically in endodontically treated teeth restored with the post types tested in this study.