Commercial Dental Composite: Determination of Reaction Advancement and Study of the Migration of Organic Compounds

This work on organic dental composites was undertaken to determine the role of residual reactive methacrylate functions at the end of the photopolymerization cycle, and to investigate the fate of the residual monomers and oligomers in organic (ethanol) and aqueous (water and artificial saliva) media. The results show that all the methacrylate monomers present in dentine migrate into ethanol (about 1% (w/w)). In aqueous media on the other hand, only the most hydrophilic monomer (UDMA) migrates (0.05% (w/w)) into water and 0.03% into artificial saliva (pH = 9). This desorption in the three media is accompanied by the hydrolysis of monomers, leading to the formation of monohydrolyzed urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA) and bis-phenyl glycidyl dimethacrylate (BISGMA); UDMA and BISGMA are completely hydrolyzed in artificial saliva. The alkalinity of the milieu apparently favours the hydrolysis of methacrylate functions.