Comparative Depth of Cure Among Two Light-Cured Core Build-Up Composites By Surface Vickers Hardness

Objective: depth of cure of composite material is restricted and it depends on many parameters such as thickness. the aim of this in-vitro study was to evaluate the depth of cure of two light-cured core build-up composites (quixfil and photocore) in different thicknesses, when cured for 60 seconds. materials and methods: the vickers microhardness measurements were made for each side of the top irradiated surfaces of 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 8-mm-thick cylindrical blocks of two core build-up light-cured composites (quixfil and photocore) and a micro hybrid composite (z250) as the control group. for each thickness a bottom to top vickers hardness number (vhn) ratio was determined and a value of at least 80% was used to indicate the acceptable depth of curing. the results were analyzed with two way anova and tukey hsd test. p value<0.05 was considered significant. results a two way anova indicated that both the depth of cure and vhn were significantly influenced by composite type (p< 0.001) and thickness (p< 0.001). the bottom to top vhn ratio reflecting the relative curing degree showed acceptable curing at a depth of 5 mm for quixfil and photocore; however, it was 3 mm for z250. the surface micro hardness of photocore was significantly higher than the other materials in all thicknesses. conclusion: although both two composites can be bulk cured, their curing depths were lower than that was expected. curing depth is a property which is material specific and decreases with thickness (p < 0.001).