[Study on dental cements. 1. The cored structure of three luting cements obtained by using Cryo-SEM and image...

The polished surfaces of three set dental cements for luting (zinc phosphate cement, polycarboxylate cement, and glass ionomer cement) were observed by cryo-SEM at a specimen temperature of -160 degrees C to prevent damage of the cement specimens and also the specimens were analyzed by EDX. Furthermore, the SEM composition images of the polished cement surface were transferred to an image analyzer to obtain the core/matrix area ratio of the set cements. 1. The polished surface of set dental cement could be clearly observed by cryo-SEM without damaging the cement specimens. 2. The image analyzer showed that the core/matrix area ratio of the zinc phosphate cement and the glass ionomer cement was approximately 2 to 8, whereas that of the polycarboxylate cement was approximately 3 to 7. 3. The elements detected in the zinc phosphate cement were Ca, Zn, Mg, Al, and P, in the polycarboxylate cement were Ca, Zn, Mg, Si, and Sr, and in the glass ionomer cement were Al and Si.