Comparative structural studies of highly-filled polymethacrylates with light microscopy, SEM, TEM and AFM

Abstract

Highly-filled (> 80 w/w %) polymethacrylates are commonly used as restoration materials in dentistry. Required properties for handling and durability of dental filling composites are realized by the addition of different sized fillers and influenced by the distribution of the fillers. Further development of dental filling materials assumes detailed knowledge of the ultrastructure regarding surface and bulk, determined by different microscopic methods. In this context the aim of our study was the investigation of dental filling composite’s ultrastructure by light, scanning and transmission electron microscopy as well as by atomic force microscopy. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) has been frequently used to characterize the structure of dental filling composites [1, 2, 3]. Even if transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a common microscopic method, it is rarely used for analysis of ultrastructure of highly-filled materials, because of the high preparation effort [4]. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) became more public for the investigation of the surface of dental filling composites in the last few years [3, 5].