The authors have developed a new technique for preparing dental CAD/CAM composite resin blocks (CRBs): the filler press and monomer infiltration (FPMI) method. In this method, surface-treated filler is molded into a green body in which the filler particles are compressed to form an agglomeration. The green body is then infiltrated with a monomer mixture before being polymerized. It is possible to produce CRBs using this method through which densely packed nanofiller is uniformly dispersed. The greater the pressure of the filler molding, the more filler in the CRB, resulting at high pressure in a very dense CRB. A CRB obtained by applying 170 MPa of pressure contained up to 70 wt% of nano-silica filler and had a flexural strength of 200 MPa, as well. It is anticipated that CRBs obtained using the FPMI method will be useful as a dental CAD/CAM material for the fabrication of permanent crown restorations.

No abstract