Curing Depth of Light-activated Nanofiller containing Resin Composites

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective To compare the depth of cure of nanofiller containing with conventional resin composites. Materials and methods Five nanofilled and nanohybrid composites were investigated and compared with a microfilled and a microhybrid reference, using the ISO 4049 scraping test, Knoop hardness (KHN) and DC profiling. Specimens from all materials (shade A3) were activated with the same LED light source for 20s. KHN (0.25N/15s) of three specimens each, produced in split molds was measured after 24 hours dark storage on sections perpendicular to the irradiated surface at 250 µm distance along the center line and two parallel lines, 0.5 mm apart, to a depth of 3 mm. Mean KHNs of the three neighboring indentations at each level were calculated. Degree of conversion (DC) was determined on specimens as mentioned above using micro-Raman spectroscopy at 125 µm distance with three measurements at each depth level. Results The depth of cure of all materials was >2 mm when determined according to the ISO test. KHN and DC data followed second order polynomial regression lines (r2 > 0.70; p < 0.001). At 2 mm depth, the KHN of six resin composites was ≤80% of the top KHN whereas the DC of all materials was ≥86% of the maximum DC at the irradiated surface. Conclusion The ISO scraping test overemphasizes the attainable depth of cure, when compared with 80% of top KHN as arbitrarily defined curing depth. KHNs reflect the crosslink density of the polymer, whereas DC additionally includes double bond conversions not contributing to enhancement of mechanical characteristics. How to cite this article Kanehira M, Araki Y, Finger WJ, Wada T, Utterodt A, Komatsu M. Curing Depth of Light-activated Nanofiller containing Resin Composites. World J Dent 2012;3(2): 119-125.