Inhibition of demineralization adjacent to tooth-colored restorations in primary teeth after 2 in vitro challenges.

Purpose: As clinical diagnosis of secondary caries is the most common reason for restoration replacement, fluoride-releasing restorative materials have been developed to address this problem. The purposes of this study were to verify demineralization inhibition produced by 5 restorative materials submitted to two methods of in vitro cariogenic challenge and verify whether these methods influence material behavior by means of polarized light microscopy and microhardness.

Methods: Class V cavities were prepared on buccal surfaces of 100 extracted primary molars and randomly restored with 1 of the 4 fluoride-releasing materials, Fuji IX, Vitremer, Dyract, Tetric Ceram, and Filtek Z250 as control material (N=10).