Evaluation of radiation effects on dental enamel hardness and dental restorative materials

This research presents the results of the microhardness of human dental enamel and of the following dental restorative materials: three dental porcelains - Ceramco II, Finesse and Noritake, and two resin restorative materials - Artglass and Targis, for materials submitted to different times of irradiation at the IEA-R1m nuclear reactor under a thermal neutron flux of 1012n cm-2.s-1 . The results obtained indicated that there is a decrease of the surface microhardness when the enamel is irradiated for 1 h and when dental materials are irradiated for 3 h. However, enamels irradiated for 30 min. did not show significant change of their surface hardness. Therefore, the selection of irradiation time is an important factor to be considered when irradiated teeth or dental materials are used in the investigations of their properties. (author)