ABSTRACT
The clinical success of dental restorations depends on the adhesive strength and bonding between dental restorative materials and tooth structure. Adhesion occurs when two dissimilar materials are close in a molecular level and contact to form bonds. In general, the adhesion and affinity between dissimilar materials, for example, inorganic and organic materials may be very weak. Adhesion can be significantly increased by application of a mediator, such as a silane coupling agent, that contains different functional groups to react and form a linkage to connect them. After surface pretreatment, the surface is more reactive for bond formation. Therefore, the surface treatment of some indirect dental restorative material is an important step in restorative dentistry. This chapter covers (1) the introduction of surface science, (2) basic theories of adhesion and surface characterization, (3) a discussion of several common surface
treatment methods, (4) some other new surface treatment methods currently under investigation, and (5) explanations for different types of mechanisms for various surface treatments to understand how they achieve the surface modification in question.
