Developing a novel dental restorative with superior mechanical properties

The objective of this study was to develop a novel high performance dental glass-ionomer cement (GIC) restorative and evaluate the mechanical strengths of the formed cements. Polyacrylic acids were synthesized via an advanced atom-transfer radical polymerization technique. The purified polymers were then used to formulate the light-cured GIC with Fuji II LC glass powders. Specimens were fabricated in molds at 23 °C and conditioned in distilled water at 37 °C for 24 h prior to testing. Fuji II LC cement was used as control and prepared per manufacturer´s instruction. Mechanical strengths including compressive strength, diametral tensile strength, flexural strength, hardness, fracture toughness and wear resistance of the cements were evaluated. The sample sizes were n = 6-8 for each test. The experimental cement showed significantly higher mechanical properties, i.e., 53% in compressive strength, 50% in compressive modulus, 125% in diametral tensile strength, 95% in flexural strength, 21% in fracture toughness and 96% in hardness, higher than Fuji II LC. The experimental cement was only 5.4% of the abrasive and 6.4% of the attritional wear depths of Fuji II LC. It appears that this novel experimental cement is a clinically attractive dental restorative and may be potentially used for high-wear and high-stress-bearing site restorations.