Seven commercial visible-light-cured (VL) dental composite resins were analytically studied for identification of the photo-initiator consisting of photo-sensitizer and reducing agent. Gas-liquid chromatography (GC) was used for the determination of the dilute components extracted from the composite resin. Mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) was used for confirmation of the qualitative data obtained by GC. The results showed that all composite resins examined included camphorquinone (CQ) as a photo-sensitizer. The concentration of CQ in the resin phase, however, ranged from 0.17 to 1.03% w/w. The composite resin with hybrid-sized filler tended to have a higher concentration of CQ than did the micro-filled composite resin. As for the reducing agent, two out of seven brands contained dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate (DMAEMA), and one included dimethyl-p-toluidine (DMPTI). The mixing ratio between CQ and the amine in these three composite resins also varied. Another four brands did not contain either DMAEMA or DMPTI, and would utilize different reducing agents.
Recently, polymerization-initiator-induced radicals have been identified as a biohazard as well as residual monomers. The present investigation was conducted to clarify the leaching behavior of the polymerization initiator and to measure the relationship between the leached amount of polymerization initiator and the degree of conversion of visible light (VL)-cured resin. Moreover, determining a suitable ratio of polymerization initiator to the base monomer according to the above relationship was carried out. The base monomer (UDMA/TEGDMA) was activated with varying concentrations of polymerization initiator (CQ/DMPT, CQ/DMAEMA) from 0.3-0.9 wt%, respectively, which were exposed to light for 40 s. Gas chromatograph mass spectrometry (GCMS) was carried out to evaluate the leached amount of polymerization initiator. The degree of conversion (DC) of the cured sample was estimated using attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. As the result, it was recognized that the leachability of the polymerization initiator (CQ, DMPT, and DMAEMA) depended on the degree of conversion of the VL-cured resin. Therefore, the optimal concentration of polymerization initiator can be determined from the relation between the degree of conversion and the leached amount of polymerization initiator, which is about 0.6 wt% for CQ/DMPT (1:1 in weight) and 0.5 wt% for CQ/DMAEMA (1:1 in weight) relative to the UDMA/TEGDMA (1:1 in weight) monomer.
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