The Development of a Dental Quartz Fiber Post

Objectives: To develop a quartz fiber reinforced epoxy resin-based composite dental post. Methods: E-51epoxy resin, anhydride curing agent, accelerator and dispersant BYK-R605 were employed according to certain ratio to constitute the resin matrix. In addition, barium sulfate pre-treated with titanate couple agent was blended into the resin matrix as a radiopacifier. After the preparation of resin liquid mixture, three certain quantites of quartz fibers were immersed into the resin mixture to impregnate the resin monomer thoroughly. Afterward, the quartz fibers were pulled into a prefabricated glass tube mould to form the fiber bars according to pultrusion technique. Then the fiber bars were heat-cured. three-point bending test and combustion method were employed to measure the flexural strength, modulus and fiber contents of the three group fiber posts respectively. The radiopacity of the three posts was evaluated by radiographing. Results: radiographs showed that the radiopacity of the fiber posts was nearly equivalent to that of radicular dentin, which exceed a commercial fiber post. The fiber contents of three group fiber bars were 52.7%, 61.8% and 72.1wt% respectively. The flexural strength values of the three group fiber bars were 895.23MPa, 1023.35MPa, 1035.40MPa, respectively. One-way ANOVA showed that there was no statistically significant difference among 3 groups(P=0.123). The flexural modulus values of the three group fiber bars were 23488.22MPa, 26194.21MPa, 30837.44MPa, respectively. One-way ANOVA and SNK multiple comparison test showed that there was statistically significant difference between group 1 and 3. Conclusion: A new fiber post material was successfully developed and it flexural strength was comparable to the certain commercial products. Furthermore, its radiopacity was better that that of a prefabricated fiber post.