Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of pre-cure heating on a nanohybrid composite regarding its flow and degree of conversion under non-isothermal conditions.
Methods: Tetric N-Ceram nanohybrid composite was used this study. The specimens were classified into three equal groups (control group cured at room temperature and other two groups were pre-cure heated to 39 o C and 54 o C, respectively). Pre-cure heating of composite was carried out using ENA heat, composite heating conditioner. After curing, the diameters of the flattened specimens where measured to nearest 0.01 mm in order to evaluate flow ,while the degree of conversion was evaluated for the three groups using FTIR spectroscopy. One way ANOVA was used for statistical analysis of results.
Results: There was a very high significant difference between the flow of the three different groups of Tetric N-Ceram (control group cured at RT and pre-cure heated groups) (P< 0.001). On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference between the degree of conversion of the three groups.
Conclusions:Pre-cure heated Tetric N-Ceram significantly has higher values of flow in comparison to its curing at room-temperature which offer the clinical advantage of increasing the material adaptation to the cavity walls. On the other hand, the degree of conversion of Tetric N-Ceram didn't show any improvement by pre-cure heating.