Performance of a New 3-Shade Flowable Composite System

Objectives: To determine the color-blending ability and translucency of a new simplified-shade flowable composite and compare them to some existing simplified-shading system composites.
Methods: Color blending was assessed by measuring color differences between color cup (10mm*4mm) and a test composite in the central hole (4mm*2mm) of that color cup. Six shades of color cups were used, representing a cross-section of the VITA Classical A1-D4 shade guide. A SpectraVision spectrophotometer measured the color of the test composite and of the color cup itself. Color differences were calculated via the ΔE₂₀₀₀ equation. Coverage error was computed by summing the six color differences between test and color cup and dividing by six, and then repeated, for a total of twelve color cups.
Translucency was assessed by measuring translucency parameter (TP) of composite disks of various thicknesses over white and black backgrounds using an X-Rite Color i7860 spectrophotometer.
Results: All materials exhibited coverage errors within clinically acceptable ranges (see Table 1).
Plots of TP versus log(thickness) were constructed and found to be linear. Linear regression using material type as a categorical variable revealed that slopes were not statistically different. EXPFL intercept was not statistically different from FEM, but was significantly different from those of OMNI and OMNIFL (see Table 3).
Conclusions: Within the limitations of this study, coverage errors and color blending effects of EXPFL and OMNIFL are not statistically different, but, TP for EXPFL is significantly less than that of OMNIFL. Clinicians can thus expect good color blending and clinically-relevant levels of translucency at clinically-relevant thicknesses from both EXPFL and FEM.