Abstract

MULDER, R; MOHAMMED, N; DU PLESSIS, A  and  LE ROUX, SG. A pilot study investigating the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites. S. Afr. dent. j. [online]. 2017, vol.72, n.10, pp.462-465. ISSN 0375-1562.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2519-0105/2017/v72no10a3.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites. METHODS: This study investigated two well-known bulk-fill flowable composites, Smart Dentin Replacement (SDR) (Dentsply/Caulk, Milford, Germany) and Filtek bulk fill flowable (FBF) (3M ESPE, Minnesota, USA). Three ampules of each material were randomly selected. The ampules were subjected to 3D Micro-CT (General Electric Phoenix V|Tome|X L240) reconstruction in order to assess the presence of any voids within the ampules. RESULTS: Voids were present in all the ampules. The total void percentage for each group of three ampules was found to be SDR : 1.147 % and FBF : 0.0424 %. There was a significant difference between the volume of voids for SDR and FBF, p-value=0.003924. CONCLUSION: Voids were found in the randomly selected samples of bulk-fill flowable composites. This is undesirable and manufacturers should be urged to ensure that no voids are present, or at least are minimized in the ampules of material.

Keywords : Voids; bulk fill flowable composite; 3D Micro-CT reconstruction; Displacement vector fields.

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