surface micro-hardness and wear resistance of a self-adhesive flowable composite in comparison to conventional flowable composites

Objectives: the durability of composite restorations is directly affected by the mechanical properties of the composite. the aim of this study was to evaluate the hardness and wear resistance of self-adhesive flowable composite (saf) in comparison with conventional flowable composites.materials and methods: in this in vitro study, 50 composite specimens were prepared in brass molds with 10mm ×10mm ×2mm and divided into five groups (n=10). specimens included three conventional flowable composites (grandio flow, filtek flow and admira fusion flow), one self-adhering flowable composite (saf, vertise flow) and a microhybrid composite (filtek z250). after polishing, the micro-hardness of the specimens was measured in a vickers hardness device, and the specimens were then subjected to 5000, 10000, 20000, 40000, 80000 and 120000 wear cycles in a wear tester. one-way anova/games-howell, kruskal wallis, and friedman tests were used for statistical analysis. the significance level was set at p<0.05.results: the surface micro-hardness of the saf was significantly lower than that of the microhybrid composite (p=0.01). there was no significant difference between the surface hardness of the different tested flowable composites (p>0.05). also, the wear resistance of the studied composites was not significantly different in various cycles (p>0.05).conclusion: based on our results, saf would not be an ideal substitute for conventional flowable composites in high-stress areas.