Comparison of the porosity of hand-mixed and capsulated glass-ionomer luting cements

The strength of dental glass-ionomer cements will be influenced by defects present within its structure. This study measured the surface area porosity, percentage surface area porosity, and mean surface area of small bubbles (< 0.01 mm²) and the surface area porosity, percentage surface area porosity and diameter of large bubbles within 40-μm-thick layers of four cements, using image analysis software. Two hand-mixed cements (Fuji I and KetacCem) and two capsulated cements (Fuji Cap I and KetacCem Maxicap) were viewed under transmitted light at x 117.6 magnification. For each selected area (64.75 mm²) of each cement sample, five independent measurements were made of each of these parameters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that there were no significant differences between the four cements in the small bubble parameters measured, whilst there were significant differences in the surface area porosity, percentage surface area porosity and diameter of the large bubbles. It was concluded that the hand-mixed cements tested had a greater number of larger diameter bubbles compared with the capsulated cements.