Introduction: Secondary caries is one of the major factors responsible for clinical restorative failure. Dental restorative materials should be antibacterial to assist in longlasting restoration. Aim: Evaluation of the effect of adding PAMAM liquid (with two concentrations) and bioactive glass powder (BAG) as antibacterial agents to glass ionomer cements (GICs) on their compressive strength, solubility, and setting time.
Materials and Method: Four main groups were prepared as follows; Group (G) I: Samples of commercially available GIC (control), G II: Samples of GIC mixed with PAMAM, G III: Samples of GIC mixed with BAG, and GIV: Samples of GIC mixed with BAG and PAMAM. A total of 120 samples were prepared; 48 samples were prepared for the compressive strength test, 36 samples were used for the setting time test, 36 samples were prepared for the solubility test.
Results: A significant decrease in the compressive strength of all groups compared to the control group was recorded. There was a significant increase in the solubility in G III compared to all other groups. For the final setting time test, the control group had the shortest final setting time, being significantly different from all other groups.
Conclusion: This study showed that GIC modified with 12% V PAMAM has a reasonable compressive strength, which might help provide a modified GIC suitable for pediatric dentistry. Furthermore, the modification of GICs with PAMAM and BAGs worsens their compressive strength, and lengthens their setting time, while modification of GICs with PAMAM has no adverse effect on their solubility.