• Journal of the korean academy of Pediatric Dentistry
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.221-232
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• 2006

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of step-curing mode on polymerization shrinkage and contraction of composite resin restoration. Class I cavities were prepared on the extracted human premolars. The cavities were ailed with Filtek $Z-250^{TM}$ (hybrid resin, 3M ESPE, USA) and Filtek $flow^{TM}$ (flowable resin, 3M ESPE, USA) and cured with one of the following irradiation modes; Halogen 40sec with continuous curing, LED 10sec with continuous curing, and LED 13sec with step-curing. Contraction stress was measured with strain gauge which was connected to TML $Datalogger^{TM}$ (TDS-102, SOKKI, Japan) and resin-dentin interfaces were observed by scanning electron microscope. The results of present study can be summarized as follows : 1. Composite resin restoration showed transient expansion just after irradiation of curing light. Contraction stress was increased rapidly at the early phase of polymerization and reduced slowly as time elapsed (P<0.05) 2. $Filtek\;flow^{TM}$ showed lower contraction stress than Filtek $Z-250^{TM}$ regardless of curing modes. 3. LED step-curing mode showed lowest contraction stress in Filtek $Z-250^{TM}$ compared with other curing modes(P<0.05). 4. LED step-curing mode showed lowest contraction stress in $Filtek\;flow^{TM}$ compared with other curing modes(P<0.05), but difference in contraction stress was not so greate as in $Filtek\;Z-250^{TM}$. 5. Polymerization of composite resin by LED light with step-curing mode and halogen light with continuous ode resulted in better marginal sealing than LED light with continuous mode.