Change of optical properties of contemporary resin composites after one week and one month water ageing Sofia Diamantopoulou a, *, Efstratios Papazoglou a , Vasileios Margaritis b , Christopher D. Lynch c , Afrodite Kakaboura a a Department of Operative Dentistry, Dental School, University of Athens, Greece b College of Health Sciences, Walden University, United States c School of Dentistry, Cardiff University, United Kingdom 1. Introduction Resin composite is the material of choice in anterior direct restorations, as it offers an aesthetic, conservative, durable and economic treatment solution. 1 The major requirements of composite resin in the anterior region are the ability to achieve an excellent colour match to the colour of natural teeth and the maintenance of the optical properties of the restorative material over time. The stratification technique is used not only to reduce polymerization stress 2,3 but also to achieve more natural- looking restorations. 4 Generally, enamel is replaced by shades of high translucency and low chroma, placed usually at the j o u r n a l o f d e n t i s t r y x x x ( 2 0 1 3 ) x x x . e 1 – x x x . e 8 a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Received 16 November 2012 Received in revised form 13 March 2013 Accepted 2 April 2013 Available online xxx Keywords: Colour Translucency Water ageing Composites a b s t r a c t Objectives: To compare colour and translucency changes after water ageing for one-week and one-month in light and dark shades of contemporary polychromatic resin composites. Methods: Enamel (e) and dentine (d), light and dark (A1 and A4 or equivalents) shades were selected from the composites Enamel-Plus HRi/Micerium, Miris-2/Coltene, IPS Empress- Direct/Ivoclar and Filtek-Supreme/3M ESPE and light and dark shades from the TPH- Spectum/Densply monochromatic composite. Five disks (d = 10 mm, h = 1 mm) per materi- al, enamel/dentine and light/dark shade were prepared. A colorimetric evaluation, over white and black background, according to the CIELab system was performed just after preparation and after one-week and one-month dark water-storage at 37 8C. Colour (DEab) and translucency (DTP) differences were calculated. Results were analysed by ANOVA and Scheffe’s test, paired t-test and linear regression analysis (a = 0.05). Results: One-week water ageing provided a wide range of DEab values (0.79 Filtek(e)/D2 to 5.19 Filtek(d)/A1) and DTP values (2.74 Hri/UD1 to 1.03 TPH/A1). After one-month water ageing DEab ranged from 1.09 Filtek(e)/D2 to 7.94 Filtek(d)/A1 and DTP values from 2.71Hri/ UD1 to 1.07 Filtek(d)/A4. Significant changes in DEab between one-week and one-month water ageing were noted for Filtek and Miris dentine and Miris light enamel shades. As for DTP, significant difference was recorded only for IPS(e)/A4. DEab was significantly correlated with DL, Da, Db and DTP after one-week and with DL and Da after one-month ageing. Conclusions: Water ageing caused remarkable colour changes, which were material and shade depended. Thirteen out of eighteen of the tested composites exhibited clinically perceptible (DEab > 2.6) colour changes even after short water ageing period. # 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. * Corresponding author. Tel.: +30 6945384220. E-mail address: sophia.diamantopoulou@gmail.com (S. Diamantopoulou). JJOD-2055; No. of Pages 8 Please cite this article in press as: Diamantopoulou S, et al. Change of optical properties of contemporary resin composites after one week and one month water ageing. Journal of Dentistry (2013), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdent.2013.04.001 Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.intl.elsevierhealth.com/journals/jden 0300-5712/$ – see front matter # 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jdent.2013.04.001