Comparative wear resistance of reinforced glass ionomer restorative materials

This study investigated the wear resistance of three restorative reinforced glass ionomer cements (Fuji IX GP FAST [FJ], Miracle Mix [MM] and Ketac Silver [KS]). Microfilled (Silux [SX]) and mini-filled (Z100 [ZO]) composites were used for comparison. Six specimens were made for each material. The specimens were conditioned for one week in distilled water at 37 degrees C and subjected to wear testing at 20 MPa contact stress against SS304 counterbodies using a reciprocal compression-sliding wear instrumentation. Distilled water was used as lubricant. Wear depth (microm) was measured using profilometry every 2,000 cycles up to 10,000 cycles. Results were analyzed using ANOVA/Scheffe's test (p<0.05). After 10,000 cycles of wear testing, ranking was as follows: KS>ZO>MM>FJ>SX. Wear ranged from 26.1 microm for SX to 71.5 microm for KS. The wear resistance of KS was significantly lower than FJ, MM and SX at all wear intervals. Although KS had significantly more wear than ZO at 2,000 to 6,000 cycles, no significant difference in wear was observed between these two materials at 8,000 and 10,000 cycles. Sintering of silver particles to glass ionomer cement (KS) did not appear to improve wear resistance. The simple addition of amalgam alloy to glass ionomer may improve wear resistance but results in poor aesthetics (silver-black color). FJ, which relies on improved chemistry instead of metal fillers, showed comparable wear resistance to the composites evaluated and is tooth-colored. It may serve as a potential substitute for composites in low-stress situations where fluoride release is desirable and aesthetic requirements are not high.