A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN DEGREE OF CONVERSION AND FLEXURAL STRENGTH OF COMPOSITE RESINS

Statement of problem. Although many studies have been carried out to investigate the correlation between the degree of conversion and the flexural strength of composite resins, there is minimal information in the literature attempting to compare degree of conversion, flexural strength and their correlation between restorative composite resins and flowable composite resins. Purpose. The purposes of this study were to measure the degree of conversion and flexural strength of composite resins with different rheological behavior and to correlate the two properties. Materials and methods. Four restorative (Vit-1-escence, Z-250, Tetric ceram, Esthet-X) and four flowable (Aeliteflo, Admiraflow, Permaflo, Revolution) light-curing composite resins were investigated. The degree of conversion(DC) was analyzed with Fourier transfer infra-red spectroscopy(FTIR) spectrum by a potassium bromide(KBr) pellet transmission method. The spectrum of the unpolymerized specimen had been measured before the specimen was irradiated for 60s with a visible light curing unit. The Poiymerized specimen was scanned for its in spectrum. The flexural strength(FS) was measured with 3-point bending test according to ISO 4049 after storage in water at $37^{\circ}C$ for 24 hours. The data were statistically analyzed by an independent sample t-test and one-way ANOVA at the significance level of 0.05. The dependence of flexural strength on the degree of conversion was also analyzed by regression analysis. Results. Mean DC and FS values ranged from 43% to 61% and from 84.7MPa to 156.7MPa respectively. DC values of the flowable composite resins were significantly higher than those of restorative composite resins (P < 0.05). The FS values of restorative composite resins were greater than those of flowable composite resins. No statistically significant correlation was observed between the DC and the FS tested in any of the composites. The dependence of FS on DC in restorative or flowable composite resins was not significant. Conclusion. It can be concluded that radical polymerization of the organic matrix is not a major factor in determining flexural strength of the commercially available composite resins.