Effect of mouth rinses on the color of three tooth-colored restorative materials

Background In the present times with people becoming more conscious about their appearance tooth colored restorative materials are used more frequently in comparison to conventional restorative materials, such as silver amalgam. Also the use of mouth rinses has become popular. Along with other chemicals alcohol is used in mouth rinses as a solvent, taste enhancer and as an antiseptic agent and studies have shown it to be related to softening of the polymer matrix which can affect the esthetic properties of this group. Aim The aim of this study was to assess the extent of color change of tooth-colored restorative materials, glass ionomer cement, compomer and composite resin when exposed to 6 varieties of mouth rinses for 14 days. Materials and methods The tooth-colored restorative materials investigated in this study were ChemFlex (MI), EsthetX (M2) and Dyract (M3). A total of 147 specimens were prepared, 49 from each restorative material. For 14 days, the samples were immersed twice daily in 15 ml of the respective mouth rinse for 2 min. After each immersion, the specimens were washed and stored in artificial saliva. The color change of the sample at the beginning and on onset of the 14-day study period was measured and an electronic photometer was used to avoid discrepancies of subjective evaluation of shade by humans. Results All the samples displayed color changes after immersion in mouth rinses. ANOVA and post hoc tests showed significant differences in color at the 0.05 significance level. Conclusion Within the limitations of this study, composite resins were found to be more adversely affected by mouth rinses than glass ionomer cement and compomer so it can be concluded that glass ionomer restoratives and compomer can tolerate mouth rinses better than composites.