Evaluation of water sorption and solubility behavior of nine different polymeric luting materials

Abstract

The cementation procedure is the key to long-term success of fixed restorations. The prognosis of prosthetic restoration is largely impacted by the maintenance of the luting cement and the adhesive bond. When exposed to water or saliva, most restorative materials undergo hydrolytic degradation. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the water solubility and water sorption characteristics of newly introduced acidic polymeric luting agents over a 180-day water-storage period. Nine different luting agents were tested. Fifty-two disc specimens of each material were fabricated using a mold with an internal dimension of 15[plus-minus]0.1 mm in diameter and 1.0 [plus-minus]0.1 mm deep. A constant weight, W0 [subscript zero], was reached after desiccating the specimens. Then, 13 specimens were assigned randomly to one of the four testing periods in the water for seven, 30, 90 and 180 days. After each period, the specimens were removed from the water and weighed to get W1 [subscript one]. A second period of desiccating the samples provided a constant weight W2 [subscript two]. The water sorption and solubility were determined by the following equations: WSP [subscript SP](%) = (W1 [subscript one] W2 [subscript two] ) X 100/ W0 [subscript zero] ,WSL [subscript SL](%) = (W0 [subscript zero] W2 [subscript two) X 100/ W0 [subscript zero]. The resin-modified glass-ionomers showed the highest water sorption/solubility results. The resin luting agents had the lowest sorption/solubility results. The self-adhesives showed a wide range of solubility/sorption; in general, they showed lower results compared with the resin-modified glass-ionomers. All the materials reached some sort of equilibrium after 90-days. Based on the results of our study, we conclude that self-adhesive luting materials were not all alike. Rely X Unicem was the most comparable to the resin luting materials. The resin luting materials had the lowest solubility and sorption. Resin-modified glass-ionomers showed the highest sorption/solubility results.