OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of saliva contamination and subsequent surface treatments on the shear bond strength of two different resin cements to zirconia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred sintered zirconia specimens were divided into two groups (n=50), one for each resin cement to be tested. Each group was divided into five sub-groups (n=10) based on the surface treatment the zirconia plates were going to receive; namely control (CL), saliva contaminated (SC), water washed (WW), Ivoclean (IC) and air abrasion (AA). In the control group, no contamination or surface treatment was performed. Specimen surfaces of the rest of the experimental groups were contaminated with saliva, and then submitted to drying with air only (SC); washed with water (WW); treated with Ivoclean cleaning paste (IC); or sandblasted with aluminum oxide particles (Al2O3) (AA). Multilink Automix (MA) and RelyX Ultimate (RU) resin cement cylinders were made and bonded to conditioned zirconia specimens using the Ultradent jig method. All bonded specimens were placed inside glass containers filled with deionized water inside an incubator at 37 °C for 24 h. After 24 h, the shear bond strength of the bonded specimens was tested using an Instron Universal Testing Machine with a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/minutes. Statistical analysis was performed by ANOVA and data were analyzed with Tukey-Kramer HSD multiple comparison tests at the 0.05 level of significance. RESULTS: Within the limitations of this in vitro study, it was determined that saliva contamination significantly reduced resin bond strengths to zirconia ceramic. Airborne-particle abrasion was the most effective cleaning and surface treatment. It significantly increased the shear bond strength of (MA) (13.73 ± 1.39 MPa) and (RU) (6.34± 0.8 MPa). The IC was effective in removing saliva contamination and enhancing the resin bond strength of (MA) (10.9 ± 1.28 MPa) and (RU) (3.1± 0.16MPa). Water did not remove saliva contamination and did not improve (RU) bond strength to zirconia (1.73 ± 0.25 MPa). There was no significant difference (p>0.05) between the shear bond strengths of (MA), water washing (4.7± 0.64 MPa), and control groups (4.9± 0.27 MPa). CONCLUSIONS: If contamination occurs, a surface treatment is required to guarantee an adequate interaction between the resin cement and the zirconia surface. Airborne-particle abrasion and Ivoclean surface treatments are effective in removing saliva contamination and enhancing the resin bond strength. Washing with water alone did not improve resin bond strength.