Effect of at-home bleaching with different thickeners and aging on physical properties of a nanocomposite

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the influence of 16% carbamide peroxide (CP) containing different thickeners on the physical characteristics of a nanocomposite resin submitted or not to accelerated artificial aging (AAA). MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred samples were randomly distributed into two groups (n = 50) according to AAA. Each group was divided into 5 subgroups (n = 10) depending on the bleaching/thickener treatment: CP + carbopol, CP + natrosol, carbopol, natrosol, and no treatment (control). The physical properties tested were color (ΔE), gloss (GU), mean roughness (Ra), and Knoop microhardness (KHN). The resin surface was performed with atomic force microscopy (AFM). STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The color (variable Δ E) was assessed with two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and additionally with Tukey's and Dunnett's tests, the roughness values were submitted to Kruskal–Wallis, Dunn's, and Mann–Whitney's tests. Data on gloss and KHN were submitted to two-way ANOVA and Tukey's test (α = 0.05). RESULTS: Among the physical properties evaluated, CP + carbopol promoted a reduction in composite microhardness only, thus differing statistically from the controls. As for CP + natrosol, such a change was not observed. The aging process reduced all the physical properties, thus differing statistically from the nonaging group. CP + carbopol increased the roughness and decreased the gloss of aged resins, whereas natrosol reduced gloss only, which differed statistically from the controls. CONCLUSIONS: AFM showed evidence of the loss of organic matrix and exposure to load particles in the aged samples. Therefore, the replacement of carbopol with natrosol provided maintenance of the composite microhardness following bleaching. The aging process reduced the physical properties evaluated, and some changes were enhanced by the application of bleaching.