SILANE TREATMENT OF FILLER AND COMPOSITE BLENDING IN A ONE-STEP PROCEDURE FOR DENTAL RESTORATIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate whether a one-step procedure of silane treatment of filler and composite blending could also produc e the strong resin-filler integrity, as can be obtained for dental com posites in two steps by pretreating the filler with a silane coupling agent before blending. Resin mixtures containing either a silane-funct ional methacrylate or a non-silane-functional methacrylate were blende d with silane pretreated or non-treated filler particles. The resin-fi ller integrity of the composites was determined from the wear performa nce in three-body wear tests. For composites with the non-silane-funct ional methacrylate the wear rates dramatically decreased when the sila ne pretreated filler was used instead of untreated filler, showing the efficacy of the silane treatment. For composites with the silane-func tional methacrylate the decrease was small, indicating comparable resi n-filler integrity for the one-step and the two-step procedures.