Journal of Dental Medicine

Background and Aims: The main objective of this study was to determine the effect of polyethylene fibers and veneering composites in fiber-reinforced resin systems on the opacity (contrast ratio).

Materials and Methods: The specimens were divided into four groups. Two groups were used as the control groups, with no reinforcement. The fibers of polyethylene (Fibre-Braid) with special basement composites were used as the reinforced framework materials. Filtek Z250 and GRADIA (shade A2) were used as veneering materials. The total thickness of samples was 3 mm with 13 mm diameter. Specimens were prepared in disk shaped metal mold. The composite materials were light-cured according to their manufacturers' instructions. The contrast ratio (CR) of each specimen was determined on black and white backgrounds using reflection spectrophotometer. Reflectance was measured at intervals of 10 nm between 400 nm and 750 nm. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA and Tukey HSD test.

Results: When contrast ratio were compared among the different types of materials statistically significant differences were observed in both veneering composites (P<0.05). The Z250 resin composite had the lowest CR. It was shown that CR tended to decrease as the wavelength of incident light increased from 400 nm to 750 nm. On the other hand, the most differences in CR between groups were found in longer wavelengths.

Conclusion: It was found that polyethylene fibers reduced the amount of the translucency in FRC samples. The results of this study indicate that light reflectance characteristics, including the wavelength dependence, play an important role for the CR of a fiber-reinforced composite.

  Background and Aims: Diagnosis of vertical root fractures often poses a clinical dilemma. Diagnosis of VRF in intraoral radiographs, except in cases where the beam is perpendicular to the direction of fracture is difficult. Misdiagnosis often leads to wrong decisions about the design of teeth future treatment plan. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic accuracy of reverse contrast enhancement options in digital radiography, and to compare it with the original images to find a suitable method to detect vertical root fracture.

  Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, digital radiography with phosphor plate detector was taken from 40 extracted single root teeth. From each intact and fractured tooth, the original and reverse contrast images captured and stored. Two expert observers viewed the images twice with an interval of two weeks. Diagnostic criteria (Accuracy, PPV, NPV, Specificity and Sensitivity) in form of absolute and complete for each observer and each images was calculated. Inter and intra observer reliability was obtained using Mc-Nemar test.

  Results: No significant differences in inter-observer reliability between the initial appearance and reverse contrast was observed (P>0.05), but in view of the intra-observer reliability in two cases, the difference was significant (P<0.05). No significant difference in the accuracy, sensitivity, specificity and PPV was observe between the two used images (P>0.05), whereas significant difference between the two images was found in NPV index (P<0.05).

  Conclusion: The use of reverse contrast enhancement option for detection of vertical root fracture did not show significant difference from initial view.