Effect of mouth rinses on bulk-fill composite microhardness - An in vitro study.

The issue of loss of surface in bulk-fill composites through routine appurtenance to mouth rinses has not been adequately elucidated. Forty light cured bulk-fill composite specimen were made in this work using a standard Teflon mould and baseline Vickers microhardness measured. The samples were separated into 4 groups and dipped with 24 hours of artificial saliva, mouth rinse containing alcohol, desensitizing mouth rinse or alcohol-free mouth rinse. The use of one-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD test was used to analyze post-immersion microhardness. The tested mouth rinses decreased the surface microhardness of the composite, with alcohol content and low pH being found to be the leading factors that led to its deterioration.