Amalgam repair: efficacy of spherical-particle amaljcam as repair material

ABSTRACT

Repair of faulty or broken amalgam restorations is a routine procedure carded out in dental practices. Various factors affect the bond strength of repaired restorations. One of such factors is the type of amalgam alloy used to repair the restoration. This study was conducted to determine which type of alloy produces highest bond-strength. One hundred twenty samples were prepared from conventional, admixed and lathe-cut amalgams [40 samples from each type]. Equal number of these samples was repaired with spherical-particle amalgam, conventional amalgam, admixed amalgam and lathe-cut amalgam using amalgambond [a 4-META dentine adhesive] as a bonding material. Tensile bond-strength of the samples was tested on electro-mechanical testing machine at cross head speed of 10 mm per minute at Pakistan Ordnance factory, Wah Cantonment. To determine the significance of the findings, Anova [one-way] was applied. revealed that spherical amalgam produces highest bond-strength. The p- values <0.05 were cons4dered significant. The samples repaired with spherical amalgam [p-value p<0.0001] show highly significant bond strength