Surface texture of resin-modified glass ionomer cements: effects of finishing/polishing time.

This study compared the surface texture of resin-modified glass ionomer cements after immediate and delayed finishing with different finishing/polishing systems. Class V preparations were made on the buccal and lingual/palatal surfaces of 64 freshly extracted teeth. The cavities on each tooth were restored with Fuji II LC (GC) and Photac-Fil Quick (3M-ESPE) according to manufacturers' instructions. Immediately after light-polymerization, gross finishing was done with 8-fluted tungsten carbide burs. The teeth were then randomly divided into four groups of 16 teeth. Half of the teeth in each group were finished immediately, while the remaining half were finished after one-week storage in distilled water at 37 degrees C. The following finishing/polishing systems were employed: (a) Robot Carbides; (b) Super-Snap system; (c) OneGloss and (d) CompoSite Polishers. The mean surface roughness (microm; n=8) in vertical (RaV) and horizontal (RaH) axis was measured using a profilometer. Data was subjected to ANOVA/Scheffe's tests and Independent Samples t-test at significance level 0.05. Ra values were generally lower in both vertical and horizontal axis with delayed finishing/polishing. Although significant differences in RaV and RaH values were observed among several systems with immediate finishing/polishing, only one (Fuji II LC: RaH - Super-Snap < Robot Carbides) was observed with delayed finishing.