Mechanical performance of encapsulated restorative glass-ionomer cements for use with Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART)

The atraumatic restorative treatment (art) approach was suggested to be a suitable method to treat enamel and dentine carious lesions in patients with disabilities. the use of a restorative glass-ionomer with optimal mechanical properties is,therefore,very important. objective: to test the null-hypotheses that no difference in diametral tensile,compressive and flexural strengths exists between: (1) the equia system and (2) the chemfil rock (encapsulated glass-ionomers; test materials) and the fuji 9 gold label and the ketac molar easymix (hand-mixed conventional glass-ionomers; control materials); (3) the equia system and chemfil rock. material and methods: specimens for testing flexural (n = 240) and diametral tensile (n=80) strengths were prepared according to standardized specifications; the compressive strength (n=80) was measured using a tooth-model of a class ii art restoration. anova and tukey b tests were used to test for significant differences between dependent and independent variables. results: the equia system and chemfil rock had significantly higher mean scores for all the three strength variables than the fuji 9 gold label and ketac molar easymix (a=0.05). the equia system had significant higher mean scores for diametral tensile and flexural strengths than the chemfil rock (a=0.05). conclusion: the two encapsulated high-viscosity glass-ionomers had significantly higher test values for diametral tensile,flexural and compressive strengths than the commonly used handmixed high-viscosity glass-ionomers.