BACKGROUND: Generally, the bonding of one material to another is important for function, and especially in so-called 'adhesive dentistry'. However, there are concerns about the clinical relevance and the discriminatory power of currently employed tests of bond strength. OBJECTIVE: Develop and validate a test protocol based on 4-point bending that may be used to examine the bonding of various dental materials to a range of substrates. The bonding of a resin-based composite (RBC) to dentine is taken as an example. METHODS: Slices of dentine 'coupons' (5.0 × 2.0 × ∼4-6 mm RESULTS: Flexural strengths in MPa: N: 1.38 ± 0.56
P: 9.82 ± 0.89
A: 5.12 ± 0.73
E: 9.39 ± 1.78
E + P: 21.03 ± 2.63
E + A: 12.80 ± 1.53
P + A: 17.16 ± 3.03
E + P + A: 20.84 ± 3.93. The treatment main effects (all, p <
10 CONCLUSION: With good reproducibility (low scatter), discriminatory power (clear treatment effects), economy with regard to substrates, the method has the potential to be adaptable to many systems.