Wear of composite resin inlays and antagonistic enamel

Purpose: To evaluate the wear of composite resin inlays arid antagonistic enamel wear when they opposed each other. Materials and Methods: Cylindrical-shaped composite disk specimens were fabricated with three composite resin inlay materials and a heat-treated direct composite resin (control). The lingual cusps of extracted human maxillary premolars were placed perpendicular to flatten composite resin inlay specimens. Two body localized wear test was carried out using six specimens per material. The surface area of worn enamel and composite specimens was measured by a computerized analysis system. Results: There were statistical differences between inlay materials and the control with respect to enamel wear, although no differences existed between the inlay materials tested. Worn enamel analysis by SEM indicated that large size quartz filler particles created the coarsest surface. The results suggest that the composite resin inlay materials tested are better than the quartz-containing composite resin in terms of antagonistic enamel wear.