Investigation of the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of nano and microsized particulate-filled dental composite material

Objective The purpose of this study was to fabricate bisphenol-a glycidyl methacrylate /tri-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate (TEGDMA)-based nano and micro-sized-filled dental composite and to study the effect of varying silane-treated nano hydroxyapatite on physical, mechanical and thermal properties. Methods The dental resin matrix was fabricated by bisphenol-a glycidyl (53 wt.%), TEGDMA (46 wt.%), camphorquinone (0.3 wt.%) and 2-(dimethylamino) ethyl methacrylate (0.7 wt.%). Silane-treated nano hydroxyapatite (nHA) filler content was varied from 0 to 8 wt.%, while zinc oxide (microsized) remains constant with 20 wt.%. A light curing unit was employed for polymerization of the resinous dental mixture. Results The result revealed that infrared spectra of untreated and treated nHA filler particles were confirmed by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The dental composite filled with 6 wt.% nHA (DHZ6) exhibited maximum compressive strength (249 MPa) and Vickers hardness (49 Hv), while dental composite filled with 8 wt.% nHA (DHZ8) showed minimum depth of cure (5.12 mm), degree of conversion (54%) and polymerization shrinkage (1.12%).