The effect of pre-heating on monomer elution from bulk-fill resin composites

BACKGROUND: The present study was aimed to evaluate the effect of pre-heating of bulk -fill resin composites on monomer elution from them. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Three different types of resin composites were used including Tetric N-Ceram Bulk Fill, X-tra Fill and X-tra Base. 10 cylindrical samples were prepared from each resin composites. Before light curing, 5 samples were pre-heated until reaching 68˚C, then 5 other samples were polymerized at room temperature. After 24 hours, release of UDMA, TEGDMA and BIS-GMA monomers were measured by High-Performance Liquid Chromatography analysis. Data analysis was performed by two-way ANOVA test, Games-Howell and Sidak post hoc tests. RESULTS: Pre-heating did not have any statistically significant effect on the mean values of UDMA, TEGDMA and Bis-GMA elution (p>0.05). The greatest amount of released Bis-GMA and UDMA was obtained from Tetric N-Ceram Bulk-fill composite. The greatest amount of released TEGDMA was obtained from X-tra Fill composite. X-tra Base composite showed the lowest amount of monomer release (P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Pre-heating did not have any effect on monomer release from bulk-fill resin composites. Moreover, the amount and the type of monomers released from various bulk-fill resin composites were not similar. Key words:Bulk fill composite resin, elution, HPLC, residual monomer, temperature.