Biomaterials Focus Group -

Research Highlight 1
Understanding dental composite wear behaviour
through in-vitro analysis -
A study by Assoc Prof Adrian Yap,
Assoc Prof Teoh Swee Hin and Prof Chew Chong Lin
For more than a century, dental amalgam (an alloy of up to
50% mercury mixed with silver, tin and copper) has been the
choice restorative material for posterior teeth. However, its
usage is declining due to the fear of mercury toxicity, the
potential hazardous environmental effects, and increased
aesthetic demands by patients. Dental composites are gaining
popularity as a "directly placed" alternative for amalgam
restorations. An optimal formulation for any dental composite
material must possess two key elements of marginal
adaptation and wear behaviour. The wear process in the
mouth can be categorized into Occlusal Contact Area (OCA)
and Contact Free Area (CFA) wear. OCA wear is a result of
sliding wear caused by direct tooth contact during involuntary
grinding of teeth and indirect tooth contact during eating. CFA
wear is caused by the suspension of food and water during
eating and tooth brushing. OCA wear of composites may be
three to five times greater than CFA wear.

Figure 1: The compression-sliding wear instrumentation.
The wear of commercial dental composites was studied by a
team comprising staff from the Department of Restorative
Dentistry and Centre for Biomedical Materials Applications and
Technology (BIOMAT), Faculty of Engineering. By employing
an integrated biological and engineering approach, the
scientists have designed a CFA wear apparatus and an OCA
wear instrument (Figure 1) that controls contact stress, wear
environment and the number of contact cycles. The
researchers defined and evaluated the different variables that
could influence wear, and looked at their effects on several
commercial composite restoratives, using a dental amalgam
for comparison. They found that increased contact stress and
cyclic loading resulted in greater OCA wear. At low contact
stresses the composites generally showed abrasive wear and
filler dislodgement due to preferential loss of the resin matrix
(Figure 2). At higher contact stresses, possible cohesive failure
(i.e., failure within the body of the composite) of the resin
matrix occurred subsequent to micro-crack formation as fillers
transmitted forces to the surrounding matrix. Conditioning and
wear testing in water demonstrated the greatest wear. For all
materials, conditioning and wear testing in heptane (which
simulates butter, fatty meats and vegetable oils) resulted in
the least wear. The amalgam alloy and one mini-filled
composite (average particle size from 0.1 to 1.0 micron)
exhibited fatigue wear mechanisms (Figure 3) with extended
wear testing. Although fatigue wear did not occur with the
micro-filled composite (average particle size from 0.01 to 0.1
micron), extended wear testing resulted in deep and wide
micro-cracks (Figure 4) that may precipitate catastrophic
failure. The investigators did not observe a significant
relationship between the change in composite hardness and
OCA wear. Results of OCA wear were markedly different from
those arising from CFA wear testing.

Figure 2 : Abrasive wear and filler dislodgement.

Figure 3: Fatigue wear with deformed and delaminated layers.

Figure 4: Microcrack formation.
The laboratory findings from this study on composite wear
gave an insight into the high data variance observed in many
previous clinical wear studies. This team of researchers
believed that the standardization of variables for in-vivo wear
assessment will enable better data discrimination and avoid
misinterpretation.
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For any commments and suggestions, please feel free to email A/Prof SB Keng
Faculty of Dentistry
National University of Singapore
National University Hospital
5 Lower Kent Ridge Road
Singapore 119074
Telephone : (65) 67724987
Fascimile : (65) 67785742