Increased wall-to-wall curing contraction in thin bonded resin layers

Wall-to-wall (WTW) polymerization contraction of filled and unfilled chemically and photo-initiated resins was studied in relation to the WTW distance. In an experimental set-up, the resins were bonded to two opposing disks, and the axial (WTW) displacement resulting from the polymerization shrinkage was measured continuously. It was found that the WTW contraction increased with decreasing WTW distance and ultimately reached a value of almost three times the linear polymerization shrinkage.