Effect of high light intensity on cavity wall adaptation of a resin composite with a self-etching primer system

This study evaluated the effect of high light intensity using a plasma arc lamp on the cavity wall adaptation of photo-polymerized composite restorations. Bowl-shaped cavities were prepared on the labial surfaces of extracted bovine teeth. Each cavity was restored with a resin composite restorative system (SE Bond & Clearfil AP-X) and then polymerized using a plasma arc lamp (Arc Light II) with a series of light intensities, including 1100, 1200, 1300, 1400, 1500, and 1600 mW/cm(2), and a halogen lamp (Candilux) with 400 mW/cm(2) light intensity (n = 10). The photo-irradiation time was adjusted for each group to receive a total energy output of approximately 16,000 mJ/cm(2). The specimens were subjected to 2500 cycles of thermal fatigue and sectioned bucco-lingually through the center of the restoration. Contraction gaps on the sections were measured using a replica-SEM observation technique. The degree of gap formation was determined as the ratio of the total length of the contraction gaps to the total length of the cavity wall on each sectioned specimen. The value was converted to a percentage. The data were statistically analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U tests at a 0.05 level of significance. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the cavity adaptation among the composites polymerized by the plasma arc lamp with high light intensities and the composite polymerized with the halogen lamp with 400 mW/cm(2) light intensity. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in the degree of cavity adaptation among the specimens polymerized with light intensities higher than 1100 mW/cm(2).