Clinical Behaviour and Marginal Sealing of Bulk-Fill Resin Composite Restorations Using Light Amplified High-Intensity LEDs Curing: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

BACKGROUND: Delivering sufficient intensity output of curing lights is mandatory to ensure optimum cure and clinical success of bulk-fill resin composite restorations and to avoid undesirable clinical outcomes. AIM: To evaluate the effectiveness of using light amplified high intensity LED curing on the clinical performance and marginal sealing of posterior bulk-fill resin composite restorations. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study was designed as a randomised, controlled, double-blind, Unicenter, parallel, two arms, superiority trial with 1:1 allocation ratio. Adult patients who required posterior tooth-coloured restorations were asked to participate in this trial. All participants signed written informed consent after being completely aware of the settings of the study. The participants who fulfilled the eligibility criteria were divided into two groups according to the type of light curing mode used. Adhesive compound proximal cavities were prepared. All restorative materials were applied according to the respective manufacturer’s instructions. Assessments of the restorations were done at baseline (one week after placement of the restoration), after 6 months and after 12 months using the modified US Public Health Service (USPHS) criteria. For quantitative assessment of the marginal sealing, resin replicas were analysed using scanning electron microscopy. Statistical analysis was done using Chi-square, Mann Whitney, independent t-test and dependent t-tests. RESULTS: There were no statistical differences between the two groups for the tested clinical parameters along the study periods. For marginal analysis, there were no statistical differences between the intervention and control group at baseline and six months (p-value = 0.347 and 0.516) respectively. At 12 months the control group showed statistically significant higher percentages (p-value = 0.031). CONCLUSION: Light amplified high-intensity curing units have clinical performance comparable with the conventional LED.