Thermal characterization of dental composites by TG/DTG and DSC

Dental composites can be improved by heat treatment, as a possible way to increase mechanical properties due to additional cure (post-cure). Direct dental composites are essentially similar to the indirect ones, supposing they have the same indication. Therefore, to establish a heat treatment protocol for direct composites, using as indirect (photoactivated by continuous and pulse-delay techniques), a characterization (TG/DTG and DSC) is necessary to determine parameters, such as mass loss by thermal decomposition, heat of reaction and glass transition temperature (Tg). By the results of this study, a heat treatment could be carried out above 160 °C (above Tg, and even higher than the endset exothermic event) and under 180 °C (temperature of significant initial mass loss).