Wear behavior of a composite restorative and various styli in sliding contact

Using a pin-on-disc sliding-wear test apparatus, the wear behavior of a typical composite restorative vs. styli fashioned from human enamel, sintered alumina, and magnesium fluoride was examined. The rates of restorative wear were found to be identical, within the experimental error of the measurements, for tests using either human enamel pins or styli fabricated from sintered alumina. Moreover, these two pin materials generated morphologically similar wear-tracks in the restorative disc. Thus, styli of sintered alumina produce restorative wear that is both qualitatively and quantitatively analogous to that observed in tests using human enamel pins.