AMALGAM ALTERNATIVES - MICROLEAKAGE EVALUATION OF CLINICAL PROCEDURES- PART 1 - DIRECT COMPOSITE COMPOSITE INLAY CERAMIC INLAY

This study investigated the degree of dye penetration with three diffe rent types of tooth-coloured restorations. Twenty-four intact extracte d molars were collected. The teeth were immediately stored in water at room temperature. Class II cavity preparations were prepared and rest ored with three different types of tooth-coloured restorations: A, com posite resin in the incremental technique; B, composite inlay techniqu e; and C, ceramic inlay. Specimens were subjected to 700 cycles of the rmal stress. They were than immersed in 2% basic fuchsin dye. The teet h were sectioned in three planes before being ranked as to the amount of dye penetration. The highest score obtained on three piano-parallel sections was adopted as the representative value. The three groups we re compared using the Kruskal Wallis non-parametric test. Dye penetrat ion was significantly lower at the enamel margins when using the compo site inlay system and the incremental technique compared to the cerami c inlay technique. The restorations placed using the composite inlay t echnique showed less dye penetration than the incremental technique at the dentine margins (P < 0.017).