Influence of Thermo-Light Curing with Dental Light-Curing Units on the Microhardness of Glass-Ionomer Cements

The purpose of this study was to verify for various glass-ionomer cement (GIC) products whether the application of thermo-light curing on the initial curing material produces an increase in microhardness, and to determine whether this hardness varies depending on the depths of the GIC samples. The efficacy of various polymerization units on this additional hardening was also examined. The GIC samples were thermo-light cured for 60 seconds with three polymerization units. The Vickers microhardness was measured at three different depths: 2 mm, 3 mm, and 4 mm. Analysis of variance and Newman- Keuls test showed statistically significant differences among tested samples for all three GIC groups (P .001). The results of linear regression analysis showed a statistically significant relationship between the hardness of the material and the temperature for samples with depths of 2 mm (R = 0.78; P = .0028) and 3 mm (R = 0.59; P = .045). The findings of this study indicate that thermo-light curing of GIC with different polymerization units for 60 seconds during setting reaction increases the microhardness of the GICs at all depths tested and may increase resistance to mastication forces, which can be validated in future clinical studies.