COMPOMERS - BETWEEN GLASS-IONOMER CEMENTS AND COMPOSITES

The term 'compomer' was crafted by the producers of the first commerci al material of this kind: a polyacid-modified composite resin, sold as a filling material for some specific applications. This term should r ecall the composite resins and glass-ionomer cements, since some featu res of these two generic materials are found in the compomers. Compome rs contain a bifunctional monomer, which should be able to react with the pendant methacrylate groups of other monomers, as well as with the cations liberated by the glass particles. Several products of this ki nd are now available, and the purpose of this paper is to describe som e of their specificities and to compare their influence on the mechani cal properties, water uptake and fluoride release. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.