Wear of resin composites polymerized by conventional halogen light curing and light emitting diodes curing units

In this study, the wear characteristics of five different dental composite resins cured by conventional halogen light and LED light sources were investigated. Five different dental composite resins of Surefil, Z100, Dyract AP, Fuji II LC and Compoglass were worn against a zirconia ceramic ball using a pin-on-disk type wear tester with 15 N contact force in a reciprocal sliding motion of sliding distance of 10 mm/cycle at 1 Hz under the room temperature dry condition. The wear variations of dental composite resins were linearly increased as the number of cycles increased. It was observed that the wear resistances of these specimens were in the order of Dyract AP > Surefil > Compoglass > Z100 > Fuji II LC. On the morphological observations by SEM, the large crack formation on the sliding track of Fuji II LC specimen was the greatest among all resin composites. Dyract AP showed less wear with few surface damage. There is no significant difference in wear performance between conventional halogen light curing and light emitting diodes curing sources. It indicates that a light emitting diodes (LED) source can replace a halogen light source as curing unit for composite resin restorations.