Friction and wear of resin-based dental materials

Commercially available resin-based dental composites were studied. Their friction and wear kinetics were determined, together with the microhardness of materials. Tribological examinations evidenced that friction force characteristics are different for various composites – equilibrating slower or faster. However, in some cases, friction may also present a constant value during the whole experiment. The friction force characteristics have been found being related to abrasion kinetics of dental composites. Microindentation experiments provided interesting information on the hardness of dental composites. It has been found, that in the most cases, composites studied exhibit the surface gradient of hardness. Generally, the harder and the stiffer the material the higher its abrasion, what follows a micromechanical model of friction.