A STUDY ON THE FRACTURE OF DENTAL AMALGAM

치과용 아말감의 파절에 관한 연구

It was the purpose of this study to investigate the fracture mode of dental amalgam by observing the crack propagation, and to relate this to the microstructure of the amalgam. Caulk 20th Century Regular, Caulk Spherical, Dispersalloy, and Tytin amalgam alloys were used for this study. After each amalgam alloy and Hg measured exactly by the balance was triturated by the mechanical amalgamator (Capmaster, S.S. White), the triturated mass was inserted into the cylindrical metal mold which was 4 mm in diameter and 12 mm in height and was pressed by the Instron Universal Testing Machine at the speed of 1mm/min with 120Kg. The specimen removed from the mold was stored in the room temperature for a week. This specimen was polished with the emery papers from #100 to #200 and finally on the polishing cloth with 0.06${\mu}Al_2O_3$ powder suspended in water. The specimen was placed on the Instron testing machine in the method similar to the diametral tensile test and loaded at the crosshead speed of 0.05mm/min. The load was stopped short of fracture. The cracks on the polished surface of specimen was examined with scanning electron microscope (JSM-35) and analyzed by EPMA (Electron probe microanalyzer). The following results were obtained. 1. In low copper lathe-cut amalgam, the crack went through the voids and ${\gamma}_2$ phase, through the ${\gamma}_1$ phase around the ${\gamma}$ particles. 2. In low copper spherical amalgam, it was observed that the crack passed through the ${\gamma}_2$ and ${\gamma}_1$ phase, and through the boundary between the ${\gamma}_1$ and ${\gamma}$ phase. 3. In high copper dispersant (Dispersalloy) amalgam, the crack was found to propagate at the interface between the ${\gamma}_1$ matrix and reaction ring around the dispersant (Ag-Cu) particles, and to pass through the Ag-Sn particles. 4. In high copper single composition (Tytin) amalgam, the crack went through the ${\gamma}_1$ matrix between ${\eta}$ crystals, and through the unreacted alloy particle (core).