Adaptation of Restorative Materials as Influenced by Roughness of Cavity Walls

¹ Department of Dental Materials, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Indianapolis, Indiana

The influence of cavity-wall texture on the adaptation of five restorative materials was investigated by determining the relative amounts of Ca⁴⁵ that penetrated margins of restorations placed in rough- and smooth-walled cavities. The relative adaptation was determined by measuring the area of isotope infiltration around the restorations. A quantitative method for computing the area of leakage has been presented.

The experiments demonstrated that rough-surfaced cavity walls markedly improved the resistance of mat-gold, cohesive gold-foil, amalgam, and silicate restorations to marginal leakage. Although results with resins were not so pronounced, the same trend was consistently observed.