Three-year occlusal wear of posterior composite restorations

The specific aims of this study were to: 1) measure the occlusal wear of four different dental composite materials placed in the posterior teeth of adults; and 2) evaluate the effect of the clinical parameters, cavity class and tooth type on occlusal wear. Four different visible light-cured composite materials were used to make the restorations in this study. The restorations placed for this randomized clinical trial were scored through the use of an indirect evaluation system (M-L scale). The total sample size per recall ranged from 90 to 142 restorations from baseline to 36 months. The mean wear at 36 months for Heliomolar, J&J Experimental (Adaptic II) and P-30 was 45-54 microns, which is rather low compared to the recently reported wear of other composite materials. Marathon exhibited significantly greater wear with a mean of 174 microns at 36 months. The data also showed that cavity class and tooth type had no significant effect on the occlusal wear of the restorations made with the three low wear-rate materials, while restorations composed of the high wear-rate material exhibited more wear in molars than premolars; this effect was again not statistically significant. These data support the hypothesis that the overall wear of a composite restoration is more dependent on the material's properties than clinical parameters such as cavity class and tooth type.