Microleakage and thermal properties of hybrid ionomer restoratives

The objective of this study was to compare the microleakage and thermal properties of two recently introduced hybrid materials to those of a conventional glass-ionomer cement. Class V preparations were prepared at the cementoenamel junctions in freshly extracted bovine incisor and evaluated for microleakage with a 45Ca radioisotope method. Thermal properties were evaluated with thermal mechanical analysis and differential scanning calorimetry. The degree of microleakage and the coefficient of thermal expansion of the conventional glass-ionomer cement were found to be significantly less than those of either hybrid.