Since the introduction of restorative dental composites, their physical properties have been significantly improved. However, polymerization shrinkage is still a major drawback. Many efforts have been made to develop a low shrinking composite, and silorane-based composites have recently been introduced into the market. In addition, many different methods have been developed to measure the polymerization shrinkage.

In this study, we developed a new method to measure the linear polymerization shrinkage of composites without direct contact to a specimen using a particle tracking method with computer vision. The shrinkage kinetics of a commercial silorane-based composite (P90) and two conventional methacrylate-based composites (Z250 and Z350) were investigated and compared. The results were as follows:

The linear shrinkage of composites was 0.33-1.41%. Shrinkage was lowest for the silorane-based (P90) composite, and highest for the flowable Z350 composite.

Dental composites have improved significantly in physical properties over the past few decades. However, polymerization shrinkage and stress is still the major drawback of composites, limiting its use to selected cases. Much effort has been made to make low shrinking composites to overcome this issue and silorane-based composites have recently been introduced into the market.

The aim of this study was to measure the volumetric polymerization shrinkage kinetics of a silorane-based composite and compare it with conventional methacrylate-based composites in order to evaluate its effectiveness in reducing polymerization shrinkage.

Five commercial methacrylate-based (Beautifil, Z100, Z250, Z350 and Gradia X) and a silorane-based (P90) composites were investigated. The volumetric change of the composites during light polymerization was detected continuously as buoyancy change in distilled water by means of Archemedes'principle, using a newly made volume shrinkage measurement instrument. The null hypothesis was that there were no differences in polymerization shrinkage, peak polymerization shrinkage rate and peak shrinkage time between the silorane-based composite and methacrylate-based composites. The results were as follows:

The shrinkage of silorane-based (P90) composites was the lowest (1.48%), and that of Beautifil composite was the highest (2.80%). There were also significant differences between brands among the methacrylate-based composites.

The objective of this study was to compare dentin shear bond strength (DSBS) of dentin bonding agents (DBAs) cured with a plasma arc (PAC) light curing unit (LCU) and those cured with a light emitting diode (LED) LCU. Optical properties were also analyzed for Elipar freelight 2 (3M ESPE); LED LCU, Apollo 95E (DMT Systems); PAC LCU and VIP Junior (Bisco); Halogen LCU. The DBAs used for DSBS test were Scotchbond Multipurpose (3M ESPE), Singlebond 2 (3M ESPE) and Clearfil SE Bond (Kuraray). After DSBS testing, fractured specimens were analyzed for failure modes with SEM.

The total irradiance and irradiance between 450 nm and 490 nm of the LCUs were different. LED LCU showed narrow spectral distribution around its peak at 462 nm whereas PAC and Halogen LCU showed a broad spectrum. There were no significant differences in mean shear bond strength among different LCUs (P > 0.05) but were significant differences among different DBAs (P < 0.001)