Resin and Zinc-Oxide Temporary Cements, a Comparative Study

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the physical properties of zinc oxide and resin cements by comparing their adhesion properties, mechanical retention and strength. Temporary cements are known for providing only mechanical retention with no adhesive properties whatsoever. One of the methods to evaluate the mechanical retention is to measure their resistance to impact. When removing a temporary cemented crown, the repetitive reverse hammer motion applies an impact force on the cement layer. This eventually causes the cement layer to crack leading to loss of mechanical retention. Methods: TNE (Temrex), SensiTemp Resin (Sultan Chemists), Q-Temp (BJM) and NexTemp (Premier Dental) resin based temporary cements were tested. TempBond NE (Kerr) and TempoCem (DMG) zink-oxide based temporary cements served as the control and were characterized under the same conditions. A variety of tests were used to evaluate the cements properties: shear bond strength [SBS] (ISO/TS11405), compressive strength [CS] (ISO 3107, 9917), flexural strength [FS] (ISO 4049) and absorption energy as a result of un-notched impact test  [AE] (BS EN ISO 179-2). The experimental results were analyzed statistically (N=10) by ANOVA (p<0.05). Results: Significant differences in test results were provided by the various cements.