INVESTIGATION OF SURFACE CHARACTERISTICS OF ESTHETIC RESTORATIVE MATERIALS AFTER POLISHING PROCEDURES

Purpose: the aim of this study was to analyze the surface characteristics of two light-curing glass ionomer restorative materials and two posterior composite restorative materials after polishing procedures. materials-methods: the specimens (n:32) were made of each product by inserting the material into cylindirical moulds (2mmx5mm) incrementally and then polimerized. a single operator polished the specimens on the same day using (1) only sof-lex discs (2) only rubber finishers (3) sof-lex discs and rubber polishers (4) mylar strip (control). surface topography was assesed using sem. results: the posterior composite resin material filtek silorane has the smoothest surface characteristics than filtek supreme xt and for the light curing glass ionomer restorative materials ketac nano has the smoothest surface characteristics than vitremer. the smoothest surface were evident with the groups (3),(1),(2),(4) for filtek silorane. the smoothest surface were evident with the groups (3),(2),(4) and (1) for ketac nano. conclusion: the composite resin material filtek silorane has the smoothest surface characteristics than filtek supreme xt and for the light curing glass ionomer restorative materials ketac nano has the smoothest surface characteristics than vitremer. according to the sem analysis, it was concluded that the best polished surfaces can be obtained by using the sof-lex discs following rubber polishers.