Abrasion of resin infiltrated enamel by tooth brushing / 대한구강보건학회지

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to evaluate abrasion of Icon(R) infiltrated, sound bovine enamel by using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) after toothbrush abrasion tests. METHODS: Sound bovine enamel specimens whose Vickers Hardness Number ranged from 280 to 320 were prepared. To measure abrasion, specimens were allocated to groups on the basis of tooth brushing stroke frequencies. Tooth brushing stroke frequencies were categorized into 5 groups 1,800, 5,400, 10,800, 21,600 and 43,200 strokes. Both infiltration depth of Icon(R) and the abrasion depth were measured by CLSM. RESULTS: Mean infiltration depth of Icon(R) for sound bovine enamel was 98.6 microm. There was no statistically significant difference in enamel abrasion depth between groups with 5,400 strokes and 10,800 strokes, but the abrasion depth increased with further increase in tooth brushing stroke frequencies (P<0.001). The mean abrasion depth of resin infiltrated bovine enamel after 43,200 tooth brushing strokes was 17.45 microm. CONCLUSIONS: The magnitude of abrasion after 43,200 tooth brushing strokes, which corresponds to brushing 3 times a day for 4 years, was less than 20 microm. This result suggests that abrasion by tooth brushing would not be a clinical problem for resin infiltrated enamel.