The effect of flowable resin composite on microleakage in class V cavities

This in vitro study investigated the microleakage of flowable resin composite as a restorative material and as a liner (either light cured separately or co-cured with hybrid resin composite) in Class V cavities. A light-cured hybrid resin composite was used as a control. Twenty extracted human premolars were prepared with standardized Class V cavity outlines on the buccal and lingual surfaces. The occlusal margin of the cavities was on enamel and the gingival margin was on dentin. One bottle adhesive system (Single Bond) was used after etching enamel and dentin with 34.5% phosphoric acid for 15 seconds. The cavities were randomly divided into four groups of 10 each and restored according to the manufacturers' instructions: Group I-Hybrid resin composite (Z100); Group II-Flowable resin composite (Filtek Flow); Group III-Flowable resin composite (Filtek Flow)+Hybrid resin composite (Z100); light cured separately; Group IV-Flowable resin composite (Filtek Flow)+Hybrid resin composite (Z100); co-cured. The samples were thermocycled 200 times with a 30-second dwell time. They were then immersed in a 0.5% basic fuchsin solution for 24 hours, sectioned and analyzed by stereomicroscopy. The degree of dye penetration was recorded and analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests. The results of this study indicate that there was no leakage at the occlusal margin for either restoration. Statistically significant differences were found among the groups at the gingival margin. No statistically significant difference was observed between the occlusal and gingival margins except in Group IV. The combination of flowable resin composite and hybrid composite light cured separately yielded the best result in this study. The most leakage was observed when this combination was co-cured. The resistance to microleakage of flowable resin composite as a restorative material is similar to that of hybrid resin composite.