Exothermic Heat of Polymerization of Light-cured and Self-cured Core Materials

Methods: Four core buildup materials, two light cured (LC), Getz blue core (Teledyne Waterpik Ft Collins CO), Light-Core (Bisco Inc Schaumburg IL) and two self cure composites (SC) Compcore AF (Premier , Plymouth meeting PA) Bis-Core (Bisco) were measured in a DSC6 (Perkin Elmer Instruments Norwalk CT).

The LC materials were exposed to 400mW/cm2 for 30 sec intervals. The energy of the light source was subtracted from the initial energy released to obtain the exothermic energy. The SC materials were mixed for 1 minute, weighed and placed in the DSC. The released energy DH and the peak temperature were recorded. All measurements were isothermal at 35°C. Five specimens were made for each group, of about 100 mg each.

Results: See table below. (* and # indicate the two groups that are different at p<0.05)

Conclusions: The LC systems reached the highest temperature during the curing cycle. The heat of polymerization does vary considerably for these materials