Fracture toughness of glass ionomers measured with two different methods

Abstract

Glass Ionomer Cements (GICs) are brittle materials with low fracture toughness and strength. Therefore, understanding the fracture toughness is an important parameter to know, due to GICs being promoted for load-bearing restorations. Also, little is known about the effects of artificial saliva (AS) on fracture toughness of GICs. This project aimed to study the effects of storage and compare two different fracture toughness test methods, namely: Compact-Tension test and 4-point bending test. Samples were made from a Zinc-reinforced-GIC (ChemFil), High viscosity bulk-fill-GIC (HV) with and without LC-coating (EQUIA), Resin-Modified GIC (RM-GIC) (Riva-LC), HV-RMGIC (Riva-HV-LC) and flowable bul..