Profilometric and SEM analyses of composite surfaces after cement excess removal

Composite cements are widely used in dentistry, due to their positive characteristics (bond strength, color, low solubility etc.). However, removal of the cement presents one of the drawbacks of their use, since incomplete removal might cause bacterial adhesion, gingival irritation and subsequent inflammation. The aim of this study was to investigate surface characteristics of composite cements after different ways of excess removal, by means of profilometric and SEM analysis. Thirty leucite reinforced ceramic specimens were divided into three groups, based on the way of cement excess removal: Group 1 (polished) - excess was fully polymerized for 40 s, then removed; Group 2 (cleaned) - excess was removed with a cotton roll, after which cement was fully polymerized for 40 s; Group 3 (prepolymerized) - excess was light cured for 5 s, after which cement excess was broken with an instrument and then fully polymerized for 40 s. Surface roughness was measured using a surface profilometer. Subsequently, the specimens were inspected by a scanning electron microscope. The data were statistically analyzed. The examination of variants of average values proved the statistically significant difference in the height of average values per group, p < 0.0001; the statistically significantly highest values were found for the prepolymerized group, whereas the statistically significantly lowest values were found for the polished group. The results of this study show that utmost attention has to be paid to the excess removal procedure, since surface roughness parameters directly depend on the choice of the applied technique.