Pre-warming of dental composites.

Objectives: Cavity lining with flowable composites have been proposed to improve initial marginal adaptation and minimize shrinkage stresses. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if prewarming of composites would influence the flow and enhance marginal adaptation thus the effect of pre-warming different types of composites on their properties are reported.

Methods: Six different composites were used in this study including a flowable and a polyacid modified composite. Uncured composites were pressed between two glass plates with a known load and the film thickness was measured to determine flow. Polymerization shrinkage was measured by means of a one-dimension contacting transducer. Flexural strength was determined using a three-point bend test. Microleakage was determined in human lower third molars on both enamel and dentin restoration interfaces. Cytocompatibility was analyzed with an Alamar Blue redox cell proliferation assay. The flow properties, linear shrinkage, flexural strength, microleakage and cytocompatibility were evaluated at 22 °C and 60 °C.

Results: The results indicated that the film thickness for each of the materials was significantly lower at 60 °C and the linear shrinkage was greater as a result of the higher degree of polymerization. The flexural strength of Spectrum TPH and Wave were found to be statistically significantly higher with pre-warming, however the other composites did not exhibit any differences. Microleakage studies showed that pre-warming had no significant bearing on the results and alamarBlue(®) results showed that the pre-heating did not have an effect on the cytotoxicity however the levels of cytotoxicity varied between the composites that can be attributed to the composition.

Significance: Pre-warming of the composites studied enhanced flow as observed by measuring film thickness and did not significantly affect other properties.