Size Dependence of Particulate Calcium Phosphate Fillers in Dental Resin Composites

Qiting Huang; Zelin Liang; Junda Li; Ying Bai; Jingwei He; Zhengmei Lin

doi:10.1021/acsomega.1c05825

Size Dependence of Particulate Calcium Phosphate Fillers in Dental Resin Composites

ACS Omega. 2021 Dec 10;6(50):35057-35066. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.1c05825. eCollection 2021 Dec 21.

Authors

Qiting Huang^{1

2}, Zelin Liang^{1

2}, Junda Li^{1

2}, Ying Bai³, Jingwei He⁴, Zhengmei Lin^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Hospital of Stomatology, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510055, China.
² Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Guangzhou 510055, China.
³ Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Centre for Functional Biomaterials, PCFM Lab, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China.
⁴ College of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China.

Abstract

Resin composites that consist of polymeric resins and functional fillers are commonly used as restorative materials for dental caries. Various types of calcium phosphates (CaPs) are studied as remineralizing fillers in the formulation of dental resin composites, which are generally inhibitory to demineralization of teeth, but the performance of resin composites has not yet been investigated comprehensively with respect to the size of CaP particles. In this study, the same tricalcium phosphate (TCP) particles within two different size ranges, the as-received TCP particles (TCP) and those resulted from grinding (TCP-G), were tested to determine the size dependence of CaP fillers in dental resin composites. The buffering capability, mechanical properties, ion release, antibacterial performance, and remineralization effect of TCP/TCP-G-containing composites were experimentally characterized and compared against two other commercial dental materials. The integration of micrometer-sized TCP particles resulted in a similar buffering effect and Ca²⁺/PO₄ ^3- release behaviors compared to the resin composite containing much smaller TCP-G particles. The flexural strength of the TCP-G resin composite was lower than that of the TCP composite after immersion in water for 30 days. However, the TCP-G composite facilitated crystal deposition toward better gap-closing performance at the dentin-composite interface. This study explored detailed insights about the size effect of CaP fillers, which is useful for the development of functional dental resin composites and their clinical translation.