Surface roughness of flowable and packable composite resin materials after finishing with abrasive discs

The aim of this study was to compare surface roughness of flowable (Admira Flow, Filtek Flow, Tetric Flow) and packable (Admira, Filtek P60, Tetric HB) composite resin restorative materials finishing with Sof-Lex discs by means of average surface roughness (Ra) measurement using a surface profilometer and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). For each test group five specimens were prepared and roughness was measured in five different positions using a profilometer with a traversing distance of 4 mm and a cut-off value of 0.8 mm. The radius of the tracing diamond tip was 5 microm and measuring force and speed was 4 mN and 0.5 mm/s, respectively. The surface roughness of each individual disk was taken as the arithmetic mean of the Ra values measured in five different positions. Additionally, one specimen of each test group after finishing was observed under SEM with the magnification of x800 and x2500. Before finishing with Sof-Lex discs, flowable composite materials showed a smoother surface than packable composites restoratives (P < 0.05). However, after the finishing procedures similar surface textures were observed both from packable and flowable composites (P > 0.05).