Revolutionizing Laminate Veneer Bonding: Laser Versus Acid Etching of Enamel

This study explores the effect of Er,Cr:YSGG laser tooth etching vs that of conventional tooth sur-face treatment on the shear bond strength of ceramic laminate veneers. A total of 76 maxillary premolars were assigned to two groups (n = 38 per group) according to the type of enamel surface treatment approach: Group 1 comprised samples treated with the conventional acid-etch protocol, and Group 2 comprised samples subjected to Er,Cr:YSGG laser. Light-curing resin cement was used to bond the restoration to the tooth, and specimens were thermocycled for 30,000 cycles. Shear bond strength testing was conducted on all specimens. The samples were observed using a scanning electron microscope to record enamel topography and a stereomicroscope to monitor the mode of failure. P ≤ .05 was considered significant. There were no statistically significant differenc-es between the acid-etch and laser enamel surface treatment groups for the shear bond strength values at maximum load (P = .627). There was a significantly higher proportion of cohesive failure in the acid-etch group compared to the laser treatment group and a significantly lower proportion of mixed failure in Group 1 compared to Group 2 (P = .022). Concerning the laminate veneer bond strength, the effects of laser and traditional acid etching on the enamel surface were the same. Enamel surfaces can be successfully etched using a laser as an alternative to the traditional acid- etch method.