Evaluation of the curing behaviour of three commercial VLC inlay composite resins by DSC and DTA thermal analyses

We examined the curing behaviour by visible-light (VL) and by heat of three commercial VLC inlay composite resins and three commercial VLC direct-filling composite resins by isothermal differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) thermal analysis and DTA thermal analysis, respectively. It became evident that heat of curing with VL irradiation and activation energy for photo-polymerization differed among the composite specimens. The activation energies for VL curing of inlay composites tended to slightly exceed those of direct-filling composites. It also became clear that the activation energy for heat curing of one direct-filling composite was considerably larger than those of the other five composites. There was, however, no systematic difference in the activation energies for heat curing between inlay and direct-filling composites.