The influence of hydrothermal fatigue on the clinically relevant functional properties of conventional glass-ionomer cements

During their everyday service, the restorative dental materials are subjected to temperature changes which can be viewed as intensive in the context of the highest allowed temperatures for these materials. In this work, the effect of hydrothermal fatigue on the in vitro tribological performance, compression strength, microhardness, and surface roughness of glass-ionomer cements was studied. Samples of 3 commercially available cements were divided into the reference (aged 14 days) and thermocycled (20,000 cycles; 5–55 °C) groups. The results obtained show that functional properties of the specimens subjected to thermal fatigue significantly differ from the literature data on the cements aged at constant temperatures. The effect of hydrothermal fatigue on the functional properties of cements is discussed in the context of processes induced by exposure to variable temperatures.