Hardness and fracture toughness of commercial core composite resins

One important mechanical property of core composite resins is fracture toughness, KIC, which expresses serviceability in the oral cavity, such as the resistance to marginal fracture. KIC values of eight commercial core composite resins were examined by the single-edge notched-beam (S.E.N.B.) method. Two composites containing about 80 wt% Si3N4 fillers exhibited both the highest KIC value of around 2.0 MN.m-3/2 and the highest hardness value. The other six composites containing 66 to 86 wt% SiO2-based fillers had KIC values of around 1.2 to 2.0 MN.m-3/2, and there was a tendency toward higher KIC values as hardness increased. It was speculated that the clinical acceptability of core composite resins could be broadened, if dental clinicians selected composites with higher KIC values.