Shrinkage of Dental Composite in Simulated Cavity Measured with Digital Image Correlation

Summary

In order to understand the spatial development of polymerization shrinkage stress in dental resin-composite restorations, Digital Image Correlation was used to provide full-field displacement/strain measurement of restored model glass cavities by correlating images of the restoration taken before and after polymerization.

Abstract

Polymerization shrinkage of dental resin composites can lead to restoration debonding or cracked tooth tissues in composite-restored teeth. In order to understand where and how shrinkage strain and stress develop in such restored teeth, Digital Image Correlation (DIC) was used to provide a comprehensive view of the displacement and strain distributions within model restorations that had undergone polymerization shrinkage.

Specimens with model cavities were made of cylindrical glass rods with both diameter and length being 10 mm. The dimensions of the mesial-occlusal-distal (MOD) cavity prepared in each specimen measured 3 mm and 2 mm in width and depth, respectively. After filling the cavity with resin composite, the surface under observation was sprayed with first a thin layer of white paint and then fine black charcoal powder to create high-contrast speckles. Pictures of that surface were then taken before curing and 5 min after. Finally, the two pictures were correlated using DIC software to calculate the displacement and strain distributions.

The resin composite shrunk vertically towards the bottom of the cavity, with the top center portion of the restoration having the largest downward displacement. At the same time, it shrunk horizontally towards its vertical midline. Shrinkage of the composite stretched the material in the vicinity of the “tooth-restoration” interface, resulting in cuspal deflections and high tensile strains around the restoration. Material close to the cavity walls or floor had direct strains mostly in the directions perpendicular to the interfaces. Summation of the two direct strain components showed a relatively uniform distribution around the restoration and its magnitude equaled approximately to the volumetric shrinkage strain of the material.

Introduction

Resin composites are widely used in restorative dentistry because of their superior aesthetics and handling properties. However, despite being bonded to the tooth tissues, the polymerization shrinkage of resin composites remains a clinical concern as the shrinkage stress developed may cause debonding at the tooth-restoration interface^1-2. Consequently, bacteria can invade and reside in the failed areas and result in secondary caries. On the other hand, if the restoration is well bonded to the tooth, the shrinkage stress may cause cracking in the tooth tissues. Either of these failures will jeopardize the service life of the dental restoration, wh....

Protocol

Note: Three dental resin composites were studied using the glass cavities: Z100, Z250 and LS, as listed in Materials List. Among them, LS is known to be a low-shrinkage resin composite with a volumetric shrinkage of around 1.0%, much lower than those of Z250 and Z100 (~2% and ~2.5%, respectively)^18-19. The equipment and other materials used in this study are also given in Materials List.

1. Model Cavity Preparation

1. Cut a long cylindrical glass rod, 10 mm in diameter, into 10-mm long short rods using a low-speed diamond saw.
2. Cut a Mesial-Occlusal-Distal (MOD) cavity (Figure 1) measuring ....

Results

Three specimens were tested for each material. After each test, the specimen was examined by eyes or, if necessary, using a microscope. No apparent debonding at the “tooth-restoration” interface or cracking was found.

The resolution of the pictures was 1,600 x 1,180 pixels with a pixel size of 5.8 mm. With a subset window size of 32 pixels, the spatial resolution of the displacement distributions was around 186 mm.

Figure 3 shows a typical plot of t.......

Discussion

The use of glass cavities with the same shape and dimensions for shrinkage strain measurement was to minimize the variation in results due to differences in size, anatomy and material properties of natural human teeth. In addition, the fused silica glass used in this study has a similar Young’s modulus to enamel, making it a suitable simulant material for natural teeth as far as mechanical behavior is concerned^21-22. Although in real tooth restorations, the resin composite is mostly bonded to dentin rath.......

Materials

List of materials used in this article

Name	Company	Catalog Number	Comments
Dental composite Z100	3M ESPE	N362979	volume shrinkage ~ 2.5%, Young's modulus ~ 14 GPa
Dental composite Z250	3M ESPE	N326080	volume shrinkage ~ 2.0%, Young's modulus ~ 11 GPa
Dental composite LS	3M ESPE	N240313	volume shrinkage ~ 1%, Young's modulus ~ 10 GPa
Ceramic Primer	3M ESPE	N167818	Rely X
LS System Adhesive	3M ESPE	N391675	Adhesive for compoiste LS
Adper Single Bond Plus	3M ESPE	501757	Adhesive for compoiste Z100 and Z250
Glass rod	Corning Inc.	Pyrex 7740 borosilicate
Curing light	3M ESPE	Elipar S10
White paint	Krylon Product Group		Indoor/Outdoor, Flat white
Charcoal powder	Sigma Aldrich, Co.	BCBH6518V	Fluka activated charcoal
CCD camera	Point Grey Research, Inc.	Point Grey Gras-20S4C-C