Abstract
Polymer shrinkage during photopolymerization of dimethacrylate monomers, used for many years to produce materials for dental restoration, can induce either the formation of tooth‐restoration gaps or the production of residual stress depending on the quality of adhesion between tooth and dental composites. In this work, the effect of the power density, used to photopolymerize three commercial dental composites (Fill Magic, Supra Fill, and Z100), on the kinetics of the reaction was investigated to determine processing conditions in which the generation of residual stress would be reduced by allowing polymer chains and macromers to flow before freezing during gelation of the polymer network. The kinetics of photopolymerization of the dental composites was monitored by real‐time infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy. Polymer shrinkage and mechanical properties were also investigated by using, respectively, density and microhardness measurements. Results showed that the final conversion (after 200 s), volumetric shrinkage, and microhardness values were not affected by different power densities, mainly because the amount of energy used during photopolymerization was set constant by using different irradiation times. Lower power densities were able to reduce the maximum polymerization rate and delay the formation of a rigid network. Conversion before the formation of the rigid network was also enhanced by using a lower power density. Considering that too premature gelation can lead to residual stress during shrinkage, the results of this work indicated that the use of a lower power density can be effective in terms of delaying the onset of the formation of a rigid network, providing then conditions for macromolecules to flow and relieve stress during shrinkage. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater 72B: 393–400, 2005