Compressive shear bond strength of core buildup materials

New tooth-colored restorative materials have been developed with the goal of replacing amalgam. These restoratives are marketed as packable composite and ormocer. The purpose of the present study was to compare the compressive shear bond strengths of these new materials with that of hybrid composite and amalgam as core materials. Standardized core buildups were made on four groups of extracted molars, with 10 teeth per group. Three tooth-colored restorative materials (Filtek Z 250, Filtek P 60, and Definite) and an amalgam (SDI Permite) were used. Specimens were placed in a special jig at a 45-degree angle. The compressive shear bond strength was obtained using a universal testing machine. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to compare the groups, and pairwise comparisons were made by Mann-Whitney U test (P < .05). Filtek P 60, a packable composite resin, had the greatest compressive shear bond strength values in all instances, and the ormocer (Definite) had the lowest. The strengths of packable composite, hybrid composite, and amalgam as core materials were not significantly different (P > .05).