RESUMEN
The objective of this work was to determine the effect on the retention force of full cast crowns cemented on short tooth preparations after preparation of dentine with an erbium, chromium: yttrium scandium gallium garnet (Er, Cr:YSGG) laser at different sub-ablative power settings. Thirty teeth were prepared for full cast crowns using a milling machine. The surface area for all preparations was measured. The surfaces of the preparations were irradiated with 0 (control), 0.25 and 0.75 W laser. The crowns were cemented with self-cure resin cement and tested for retention on a Hounsfield Tensometer machine. The 0.75 W power setting produced the highest failure load value (346.2 +/- 86.1 N) and was significantly higher than the other groups. There were no significant differences between the 0.25 W and 0 W control groups