Wear of conventional and pre-polymerized composite materials under erosive/abrasive conditions

The aim of this study was to examine the wear of three different composite materials usable for vertical bite reconstruction under erosive/abrasive conditions and to compare them with the bovine dental hard tissues enamel and dentin in-vitro. The composite materials Filtek Supreme XTE, CeraSmart and Brilliant Crios and bovine enamel and dentin specimens were evenly allocated to five groups (n=10). Samples were firstly exposed to hydrochloric acid for 1 min, then stored for 30 min in artificial saliva. In the second step, the samples were brushed for 1 min with 100 brushing strokes each and an applied force of 2.5 N in an automated brushing device. After 60 of these erosive/abrasive cycles, wear of the samples was determined by contact profilometry. Filtek Supreme XTE showed significantly less wear (mean ± standard deviation; 0.15 ± 0.11 μm) compared to the other two composite materials (p < 0.05). No significant difference (p > 0.05) could be found between CeraSmart (0.25 ± 0.03 μm) and Brilliant Crios (0.24 ± 0.04 μm). The two bovine dental hard tissues, enamel (13.70 ± 0.94 μm) and dentin (50.08 ± 4.46 μm), each showed a significantly higher amount of wear than the three restorative materials (p <0.05). In conclusion, this study exhibited that the three composite materials, Filtek Supreme XTE, CeraSmart and Brilliant Crios, were more resistant under erosive/abrasive conditions compared to bovine enamel and bovine dentin, respectively.