engleski

Pretreatment of FRC Postec with Low-pressure Plasma

Objectives: The contemporary dentistry attempts to simplify every procedure to minimize mistakes and shorten the time of application. The object of this study was to determine whether pretreatment of FRC Postec (Ivoclar Vivadent, Schaan, Liechenstein) with plasma in laboratory can replace etching with 37% orthophosphoric acid. Methods: Low pressure inductively coupled radio frequency hydrogen plasma was used for etching of FRC Postec. The etching process was monitored by optical emission spectroscopy. Samples were treated at various plasma conditions: hydrogen gas pressure (10-60 Pa), applied plasma power (50-300 W), in glow and post-glow plasma region and for various exposure times. Both plasma treated samples and control samples treated classicaly were characterized by means of Optical Microscopy (OM), the contact angle measurements (CAM) and the Drop Absorption Time Measurement (DATM) using DI water drops of 0.3&micro ; ; ; ; l. Results: The CAM appeared to be good control parameter for etching efficiency. Traditionaly treated samples have contact angles of about 60&plusmn ; ; ; ; 3 degree, compared to 70&plusmn ; ; ; ; 4 degree of non-treated sample. By plasma treatment the contact angle was easily tailored down to 35 degree by changing exposure time and gas pressure at given applied power. Prolonged plasma treatment or lowering the gas pressure does not decrease the contact angle further but produce damage of the composite. Conclusion: The results implay that low pressure plasma etching could efficienty replace conventional chemical methods and allow optimisation of FRC postec surface for better application results.

FRC Postec; low pressure hydrogen plasma; etching

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