Purpose: In this study the comparative results obtained from examinations of two different restorative composites with different cavities filling method are presented. Micro-CT was used for the evaluation of the marginal integrity and quality of composite fillings in connection with microstructural investigations made by both optical and scanning electron microscopy.
Materials and methods: The examinations of dental tooth filings in bulk-fill technique were based on micro-CT and microscopy observations. Two different restorative composites were selected for the study, namely SonicFill- bulk fill and conventional Filtek Z550.
Results: The experiment has shown that micro-CT screening analysis for identification of individual components of tooth and fillings systems gives a high quality of images. Thanks to that it was possible to analyze and identify the porosity in the fillings. But the microscopy analysis has shown more information about the internal structure and quality of bonding between composite and enamel/dentin. The SonicFill gives better quality and bonding to structure of teeth than Filtek.
Conclusions: SonicFill's filling have more homogenous structure than Filtec. It has a greater share of reinforcement in the form of polygonal particles, in Filtek particles have a shape close to spherical. Sonic Fill gives a better adhesion to tooth.
Clinical relevance: The evaluation of clinical relevance in this research is crucial to simplify the transfer of knowledge from research by materials engineering into practice in dentistry.
Keywords: adhesion; composite filling; microstructure; tooth.
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