Effect of photopolymerization time on the microhardness of resin cement beneath feldspathic ceramic.

During ceramic veneer luting, resin cement polymerization is performed with interposition of the dental ceramic.

Aim: To evaluate how and how much the photoactivation time affects the Vickers hardness of resin-based cements with interposed ceramic.

Materials and method: A total 24 specimens H mm in diameter and 1 mm thick were made from Paracore White Coltene (PC), Densell Resin Duo Cement (DC), 3MRelyX Veneer (RX) and Coltene Fill Up! (FU), interposing VitablockMarkII (Vita Zahnfabrik) feldspathic ceramic 0.6 mm thick during photoactivation. The materials were polymerized using 100% and 25% of the times indicated by the manufacturers with a Coltolux LED ((Coltene) light with intensity 1200 mW/cm². Each polymerization time group consisted of three specimens of each material, which were stored dry in darkness at 37 °C for 7 days. Three Vickers microhardness measurements were made on the top and bottom surfaces of each specimen using a Vickers Future Tech FM300 microhardness tester (300 g, 5 s). The values were averaged, and the bottom/top ratios calculated. Results were analyzed by ANOVA. (p<0.05) complemented with multiple comparisons using Tukey's test (p<0.05).

Results: Different photoactivation times were found to have a significant effect on hardness values of the cements evaluated, with significant differences between some of the cements. No statistically significant difference was found for the effect of photoactivation time on bottom/top microhardness ratio in those materials.

Conclusions: Under the experimental conditions employed, it can be concluded that photopolymerization for shorter times and the interposition of restorative material significantly affectpolymerization quality as evaluated by microhardness, but the bottom/top ratio was unaffected by differences in polymerization time.