Localized three-body wear of resin composites.

Localized wear tests have been performed on six resin composites using a recently developed three-body wear testing machine. After repeated loading to the composites, the worn surface was replicated. Then the wear values of the respective resin composites were determined from the surface area of the worn defect using an image-analyzer. In addition, the microstructure of the worn area was analyzed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). This study revealed that a fine particle hybrid composite exhibited the greatest localized wear resistance of all resin composites investigated in this study. SEM of the microfilled resin composites showed some degradation between filler and matrix.