RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effects of sterilization, conditioning method, and thermal aging on the retentive strength of two-piece zirconia abutments. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In total, 128 stock zirconia abutments were divided into four groups (n = 32) according to the conditioning parameters: (A) air-abrasion using 50 µm alumina particles/1.0 bar, (B) 50 µm/2.0 bar, (C) 100 µm/1.0 bar, and (D) 100 µm/2.0 bar. All abutments were bonded onto titanium bases using DTK adhesive resin and stored in water bath (37°C) for 72 h. Each group was subdivided into two subgroups (n = 16), group 1 was disinfected, whereas group 2 followed disinfection and autoclave sterilization. Half of the specimens of each subgroup (n = 8) was directly subjected to the axial retention test (groups N), while the other half was first subjected to 150 days of thermocycling followed by retention test (groups T). Statistical analysis was performed with three-way ANOVA, additional statistical analysis was performed by using separate one-way ANOVAs followed by the Tukey's post-hoc test for post hoc pairwise comparisons among groups. RESULTS: The highest median retention strength was recorded for group B2N (1390 N), whereas the lowest strength was recorded for group C1T (688 N). No significant interaction (p ≥ 0.05) was detected between the different variables; conditioning method, sterilization, and the thermal cycling regarding the effect on the resulting retention. However, the sterilization always showed a positive effect. Thermocycling presented an adversely significant effect only in the absence of sterilization (p < 0.05), with the exception of subgroups A. For the sterilized groups, thermocycling had no statistically significant effect on the retention. CONCLUSION: Steam autoclaving increased the retention of hybrid zirconia abutments. DTK adhesive resin for two-piece zirconia abutments performed well after sterilization and thermocycling.