Extractable free monomers from self-cured dental sealants resulting from dispensing errors

High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) experiments were performed on a series of commercially available self-curing dental sealant materials th at were deliberately mismixed, The goal of the experiments was to measure t he amount of extractable sealant under conditions of nonideal processing as might happen clinically. The stoichiometry of the two component resins ran ged from a 2/1 to a 1/2 catalyst to base mixture using a commercially avail able self-cure sealant that was to be mixed 1/1 based on the manufacturer's recommendations. Following fabrication the samples were immersed in an eth anol/water mixture as an extraction fluid that was then analyzed using HPLC . Values other than the 1-1 stoichiometry led to a statistically larger ext ractable content of bis-glycidyl methacrylate relative to the control. The extractable fraction of triethylene glycol dimethacrylate also increased wi th mismixing, although statistical differences varied somewhat more. Given the increased concerns about the effects of extractable monomers on the end ocrine system, there mag be an increased need to maintain proper stoichiome try in a clinical setting. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.