The effectiveness of oyster filler on the physical and mechanical properties of novel dental restorative composite

The objective of this paper was to investigate a blend of natural biomaterial such as oyster, which has wide availability, is low in cost, and is polymer-based, in order to obtain a dental composite with good physical and mechanical properties. Oyster shell was cleaned then crushed and milled ground by size less than 25 mu m. The average crystalline size of Oyster shell powder was examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed peaks that were characteristic of calcium carbonate, morphology was examined using scanning electron microscopy also to know the composition of Oyster shell filler used EDX, also the specific surface area of the Oyster shell powder was analysed using BET analysis and FTIR was performed to identify the functional group. All test conducted has shown that oyster shells powder is mostly composed of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) with rare impurities and possibility to develop oyster powder as a filler. Physical and mechanical properties of the dental oyster composite were measured such as depth of cure and water absorption, and mechanical properties such as flexural strength, flexural modulus, and DTS, where observed. Experimental results confirmed that composites produced from a combination of the oyster powder indicated that the depth of cure behaviour of the composite decreased (2.36 +/- 0.16 mm), while the water absorption properties of the composite increased 34.88 +/- 2.75 and 4.29 +/- 66 mu g/mm3 for sorption and solubility respectively, increase in flexural strength (76.92 +/- 5.42MPa), flexural modulus (14.571.31 GPa) occurred, as well as in DTS (46.40 +/- 5.43MPa). Finally, all oyster composite values were ranged using the ISO 4904: 2008 requirement, as well as ANSI/ADA specification No. 27, for cure resins..