EVALUATION OF FRACTURE STRENGTH OF A NEW ALKASITE RESTORATIVE MATERIAL WITH FIBER REINFORCEMENT.

Background: Clinical Toughness of the restorative material is vital for any restorative material clinically and is reliant on the wear resistance and its ability to withstand the occlusal forces depends on the fracture strength. Aim: To measure the impact of ber reinforcement on fracture strength of a new Alkasite restorative material. Materials And Methods: Experimental material is prepared by the addition of discontinuous silanized short glass bers in 5 wt% (0.75 gm) to 15 gm of powder component of Cention N. Standardized class I cavities were prepared on 60 mandibular teeth and are divided into 3 groups each group containing 20 samples. Each group is restored with Tetric N ceram Bulkll composite, Cention N with ber and Cention N without ber. Fracture strength evaluation was done for the samples using Instron testing machine. Statistical analysis was done by using one-way ANOVAand Tukey's multiple post-hoc tests with signicance level set at p≤0.05. Results:Cention N with ber has shown signicantly greater fracture strength values when compared to Cention N with out ber (p=0.0001) and resin composite. Conclusion: Superior fracture resistance was shown by Cention N with ber followed by ber reinforced composite and Cention N with-out ber.