Effect of surface treatment on tensile bond strength between polyvinyl siloxane and custom trays: An in vitro study

Dental impressions are important for prosthodontics as they impact the quality of the final prosthesis with accuracy and fit. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the tensile bond strength of polyvinyl siloxane (PVS) impression material with two different custom tray materials, visible light-cured (VLC) resin and 3D-printed custom trays, with and without sandblasting. A total of 80 custom trays (40 VLC resin and 40 3D-printed) were constructed. The 80 trays were divided into sandblasted and non-sandblasted subgroups and tensile bond strength testing was performed on each using a Universal Testing Machine. Testing revealed that sandblasted VLC trays had much higher bond strength than sandblasted 3D-printed custom trays, while the non-sandblasted 3D-printed custom trays had greater bond strength than non-sandblasted VLC trays. Thus, we show an emphasis on the need for surface treatment and being selective when choosing a material when developing a custom tray to be used with an elastomeric impression material.