Evaluation of composite wear with a new multi-mode oral wear simulator

Objectives. The goals of this study were to develop a machine which simultaneously produces wear through the two main oral wear mechanisms of abrasion and attrition by the action of an enamel antagonist and to compare the results obtained for dental composites using this machine to those obtained from clinical studies and other in vitro studies. Methods. The accuracy of this new wear tester was determined by examining 11 commercial composite filling materials and 1 amalgam. Specimens were subjected to three-body abrasion and attrition wear for 50,000 cycles. Profilometry was used to quantitate wear of the composites. Linear regression analysis was used to correlate the results to those obtained from clinical studies, as well as from other in vitro wear testers. The area of enamel wear was also determined by image analysis. The SEM was used to evaluate the wear surfaces. Results. The lowest abrasion wear was recorded for the amalgam and the microfill and smaller-particle composites. Attrition wear was enhanced for the microfill composites and one small-particle hybrid. There was a strong correlation between the results obtained with the new wear tester and those obtained in the clinical trials cited in the literature. Wear of the enamel antagonist was the greatest for the composites with the largest particle sizes. The wear tester showed a reasonable correlation with other wear-producing machines. Significance. A new wear tester developed to evaluate and discriminate abrasion and attrition wear provided results similar to those reported in the literature for a variety of commercial composites. The new machine is capable of characterizing the behavior of a material in multiple wear modes simultaneously with one simple, realistic test.