Organic leachables from polymer-based dental filling materials

Area of Science:

• Polymer Chemistry
• Analytical Chemistry
• Dental Materials Science

Background:

• Polymer-based dental filling materials are widely used.
• Concerns exist regarding potential hazardous leachables from these materials.
• Understanding the chemical composition of leachables is crucial for patient safety.

Purpose of the Study:

• To separate and identify organic leachables from three different polymer-based dental filling materials.
• To quantify identified leachables and assess their potential health risks.
• To characterize leachables using multivariate data analysis.

Main Methods:

• In vitro separation and identification of leachables.
• Combined technique of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS).
• Multivariate data analysis for pattern recognition.

Main Results:

• Median of 14–22 separable organic leachables found per material.
• Identified and quantified compounds include DL-camphorquinone, 4-dimethylaminobenzoic acid ethyl ester (DMABEE), drometrizole, 1,7,7-trimethylbicyclo[2,2,1]heptane, 2,2-dimethoxy[1,2] diphenyletanone (DMBZ), ethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (EGDMA), and triethyleneglycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA).
• Three identified leachables are known allergens; lipophilicity (log P(ow)) ranged from 1.09 to 4.20.

Conclusions:

• The study successfully characterized potential hazardous compounds in polymer-based dental filling materials.
• GC-MS is effective for identifying and quantifying leachables.
• The presence of allergens highlights the need for further safety assessments of dental materials.