WATER SORPTION AND SOLUBILITY OF RESIN-MODIFIED POLYALKENOATE CEMENTS

The purpose of this study was to compare the water sorption and solubi lity of several resin-modified polyalkenoate cements. The materials ev aluated included Variglass used as a restoration, base and liner; Fuji II LC(R); Fuji Liner(R); Vitrebond(R); Vitremer(R) and Photac-Bond(R) . Z100, a composite resin, was used as control. All specimens were man ipulated according to the manufacturers' instructions and then subject ed to water sorption and solubility tests based on the ISO 4049 requir ements. Data were subjected to one-way ANOVA and Duncan's test at a 0. 05 significance level. Results show that the composite resin control h ad significantly less water sorption than any of the resin-modified po lyalkenoate cements evaluated. The degree of water sorption was produc t dependent and appeared to be influenced by the resin (HEMA) content. There was no apparent correlation between water sorption and solubili ty. Some of the resin-modified polyalkenoate cements retained water in their set structure and hence solubility could not be assessed.