Abstract
This study was performed to investigate the effec% of immersion in water and thermal cycling on the mechanical peoperties of light cured restorative composite resins. Five commerically available light-cured composite resins(Photo Clearfil A : CA, Lite-Fil A . LF, Clearril Photo Posterior CP, Prisms AP.H.. PA, 2100 : ZH) were unto The specimens of 12 m in diameter and 0.7 m in thickness were made, and an immersion in $37^{\circ}C$ water for 7 days and a thermal cycling of 1000 cycles at 15 second dwell time each in $5^{\circ}C$ and $55^{\circ}C$ baths were performed. Biaxial flexure test was conducted using the ball-on-three-ball method at the crosshead speed of 0.5mm/min. In order to investigate the deterioration of composite resins during the thermal cycling test, Weibull analysis for the biaxial flexure strengths was done. Fracture surfaces and the surfaces before and after the thermal cycling test were examined by SEM. The highest Weibull modulus value of 10.09 after thermal cycling tests which means the lowest strength variation, was observed in the CP group, and the lowest value of 4.47 was obsered in the LF Group. Biaxial flexure strengths and Knoop hardness numbers significantly decreased due to the thermal cycling ($\textit{p}$< 0.01), however, they recovered when specimens were drie4 The highest biaxial flexure strength of 125.65MPa was observed in the ZH group after the thermal cycling test, and the lowest value of 64.86MPa was observed in the CA group. Biaxial flexure strengths of ZH and CP groups were higher than those of PA, CF, and CA groups after thermal cycling test($\textit{p}$< 0.05). Knoop hardness numbers of CP group after the thermal cycling test was the highest(95.47 $\pm$ 7.35kg/$mm^2$) among the samples, while that of CA group was the lowest(30.73 $\pm$ 2.58kg/$mm^2$). Knoop hardness numbers showed the significant differences between the CP group and others after the thermal cycling test(($\textit{p}$< 0.05). Fracture surfaces showed that the composite resin failure developed along the matrix resin and the filler/resin interface region, and the cracks propagated in the conical shape from the maximum tensile stress zone.
