The present study investigated the effectiveness of pretreatment on dentin bonding. The adhesive resin was 5% 4-methacryloyloxyethyl trimellitate anhydride (4-META) in methyl methacrylate (MMA) combined with poly-MMA powder. Polymerization of this resin was initiated by tri-n-butyl borage (TBB). Ground bovine dentin samples were etched with either an aqueous solution of 10% citric (10-0 solution) (Group I) or aqueous solution of 10% citric acid and 3% ferric chloride(10-3 solution) (Group ll ). After etching, the primer (an aqueous solution of 35% hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEM- A) and 5% glutaraldehyde was applied on the differently etched surfaces (Group III , Group IV). The 10-0 treatment showed the lowest tensile bond strength, followed by the 10-3 treatment, primer application after the 10-0 treatment and primer application after the 10-3 treatment. The relationship among the surface morphology after pretreatment, fractured surface morphology and tensile bond strength was examined. It revealed that the surface morphology change by different pretreatment influenced the bond strength and the resulting fractured surface morphology. The correlation of tensile bond strength with the fracture morphology was explained.