Degree of conversion and temperature rise during polymerization of composite resin samples with blue diodes

To ensure an adequate clinical composite filling light source for photopolymerization is of great importance. In everyday clinical conditions commonly used unit for polymerization of composite material is halogen curing unit. The development of new blue superbright light emitting diodes (LED) of 470 nm wavelengths comes as an alternative to standard halogen curing unit of 450-470 nm wavelengths. The purpose of this study was to compare the degree of conversion (DC) and temperature rise of four hybrid composite materials: Tetric Ceram, Pertac II, Valux Plus and Degufill Mineral during 40 s illumination with standard halogen curing unit Heliolux GTE of 600 mW cm(-2) intensity, Elipar Highlight soft-start curing unit of 100 mW cm(-2) (10 s) and 700 mW cm(-2) (30 s) intensity and 16 blue superbright LED of minimal intensity of 12 mW cm(-2) on the surface and 1 mm depth. The results revealed only a little bit higher DC values in case of polymerization with even 66 times stronger halogen curing units which showed twice higher temperature than blue diodes. Temperature and DC obtained are higher on the surface than on 1 mm depth regardless on the light source used.