Accelerated fatigue of dentin with exposure to lactic acid

Composite restorations accumulate more biofilm than other dental materials. This increases the likelihood for the hard tissues supporting a restoration (i.e. dentin and enamel) to be exposed to acidic conditions beyond that resulting from dietary variations. In this investigation the fatigue strength and fatigue crack growth resistance of human coronal dentin were characterized within a lactic acid solution (with pH = 5) and compared to that of controls evaluated in neutral conditions (pH = 7). A comparison of the fatigue life distributions showed that the lactic acid exposure resulted in a significant reduction in the fatigue strength (p ≤ 0.001), and nearly 30% reduction in the apparent endurance limit (from 44 MPa to 32 MPa). The reduction in pH also caused a significant decrease (p ≤ 0.05) in the threshold stress intensity range required for the initiation of cyclic crack growth, and significant increase in the incremental rate of crack extension. Exposure of tooth structure to lactic acid may cause demineralization, but it also increases the likelihood of restored tooth failures via fatigue, and after short time periods.