In vitro wear of indirect composite restoratives

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Indirect composite restoratives have been improved in their wear resistance and physical properties. Several new indirect composites claim to be successfully used for full coverage crowns, but there is limited information for wear values of these new indirect composites. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the wear characteristics of 7 indirect composite restoratives and to compare them with a type III gold alloy by means of an in vitro wear test. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Seven indirect composites (2 photopolymerized and 5 photo/heat-polymerized types) and a type III gold alloy (control) were used. Cylindrical Class I cavities (4-mm diameter and 3-mm depth) were prepared in occlusally flattened extracted human molars. Inlays with respective materials were fabricated on duplicated stone casts according to the manufacturers' instructions. Three types of in vitro wear tests were completed by use of the University of Alabama wear simulator. The wear tests included generalized wear as simulation of the wear during mastication, localized wear as simulation of attrition by occlusal contact, and antagonistic enamel wear, which simulated the wear of enamel created by direct contact with the restorative materials. Seven specimens were tested for each material and wear mode, and the wear depths were measured on profilometric tracings with a 2-dimensional profilometer with 1-microm accuracy. All data were analyzed by 1-way analysis of variance, and multiple comparisons were performed with Fisher's test, for which the significant level was set at.05. RESULTS: The gold alloy control exhibited a very small amount of wear in both generalized wear (0.2 +/- 0.1 microm) and localized wear (13.8 +/- 5.0 microm) as compared with all composite specimens. The antagonistic enamel wear of gold alloy was similar with the value of Sculpture. The material group, which was post polymerized or post heat-treated, included BelleGlass, Sculpture, Estenia, and Cristobal+ and showed small values ranging from 1.6 to 2.2 microm in the generalized wear. For the localized wear, Estenia exhibited the minimum value (12.8 +/- 4.9 microm) that was statistically the same as the value of the gold alloy control. However, Estenia exhibited the greatest antagonistic enamel wear value (66.0 +/- 14.0 microm) of all materials tested in this study. It was statistically significant with other materials (P