Early hardness of self-adhesive resin cements cured under indirect resin composite restorations

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the influence of curing mode on the surface hardness of seven resin cements used to lute indirect composite restorations.

Materials and methods: Seven commercial dual-curing resin cements were tested: two were total-etch (RelyX ARC [3M ESPE, St. Paul, MN, USA] and Variolink II [Ivoclar Vivadent, Schaan, Liechtenstein]); one was self-etch (Multilink Automix [Ivoclar Vivadent]), and four were self-adhesive (RelyX Unicem [3M ESPE], Maxcem Elite [Kerr Corp., Orange, CA, USA], SmartCem2 [Dentsply, Detrey, GmbH, Konstanz, Germany], and G-Cem [GC CORPORATION, Itabashi-Ku, Tokyo, Japan]). Three specimens (0.5 × 6.5mm) of each material were prepared for each of three experimental groups: Group 1 (cements allowed to self cure); Group 2 (cements light-cured for 40 seconds); and Group 3 (cements light-cured for 80 seconds). All specimens were cured through a 4-mm-thick composite cylinder (Filtek Z250-A3). Surface microhardness numbers were determined at 20 min after preparation. Results were analyzed by two-way analysis of variance and Student-Newman-Keuls tests (p<0.05).

Results: Superficial hardness was significantly influenced by the resin cement tested (p<0.0001), the curing mode (p<0.0001), and their interaction (p<0.0001). RelyX ARC exhibited the highest mean microhardness values regardless of the curing mode. Light-curing significantly increased the microhardness of all resin cements studied, and these values increased even further with a doubling of irradiation time. Self-adhesive cements exhibited different behavior according to the curing mode. RelyX Unicem was highly sensitive to light irradiation, showing the lowest mean values in the self-curing mode. After light irradiation for 40 or 80 seconds, Maxcem Elite exhibited the lowest mean hardness values of all the resin cements tested.

Conclusion: The microhardness of resin cements is highly dependent on the brand. Dual-curing resin cements should always be light irradiated for longer periods than that recommended by manufacturers.

Clinical significance: Dual-curing resin cements should always be light-cured for longer irradiation times, as light irradiation for 80 seconds yields the highest microhardness values in comparison with self-curing or light irradiation for 40 seconds. However, some self-adhesive resin cements exhibit low microhardness values when used to cement 4-mm-thick indirect composite restorations regardless of the curing mode applied.