The purpose of this study was to investigate the surface characteristics and color stability of gingiva-colored composite restorative materials (Anaxgum-ANG, Ceramage-CMG and Gradia Gum-GRG). The microstructure, composition, degree of conversion (DC %) and 3D roughness (Sa, Sz, Sdr, Sc) were examined by LV-SEM/EDS, ATR-FTIR and optical profilometry, respectively. For the color stability (CIE L*, a*, b* system) and hardness (HV), measurements were performed at baseline and after 30 days storage in distilled water, coffee and red wine. The ANG and GRG contain prepolymerized particles in aromatic and aliphatic resin matrices, respectively, whereas CMG contains inorganic zirconia silicate/silica particles, in an aromatic resin matrix, with a smaller particle size and a higher surface area fraction. Urethane monomers were mainly identified in CMG and GRG. The DC% showed statistically insignificant differences between the materials. The same applied for the roughness parameters, except for the greatest Sdr in CMG. ANG showed a color difference (ΔE) of > 3.3 after immersion in all media, CMG in coffee and wine and GRG only in coffee. Sc was the only roughness parameter demonstrating correlations with the ΔL*, Δb* and ΔE*. The HV values showed insignificant differences between the storage conditions per material. There are important differences in the color stability of the materials tested, which were mostly affected by the roughness parameters due to variations in their microstructure.
Keywords: color stability; composition; degree of conversion; gingiva-colored composites; hardness; roughness.