Characterization of restorative short-fiber reinforced dental composites.

The aim was to evaluate and compare certain physical properties including surface-wear of five commercial short fiber-reinforced composites (SFRCs; Alert, NovaPro-Flow, NovaPro-Fill, everX Flow and everX Posterior). The following properties were examined according to ISO: flexural strength, flexural modulus, fracture toughness, water sorption. Degree of conversion was determined by FTIR-spectrometry. A wear test was conducted with 15,000 chewing-cycles using a chewing-simulator. Polymerization shrinkage-stress was measured using tensilometer. SEM was used to evaluate the microstructure of SFRCs. everX Flow exhibited the highest fracture toughness (2.8 MPa m1/2) and the lowest wear depth (20.4 µm) values (p<0.05) among the SFRCs tested. NovaPro Fill (141.5 MPa) and everX Flow (147 MPa) presented the highest flexural strength values (p<0.05). everX Flow showed the highest shrinkage-stress value (5.3 MPa) while other SFRCs had comparable values. The use of SFRCs in dentistry can be advantageous, but special attention should be given to the selection of the materials.