Effect of addition of antimicrobial triclosan on selected properties of water-activated glass ionomer cement

Introduction. Failure of dental restorations is
commonly associated with residual infected dentine
underneath. Dental materials containing antimicrobials
may overcome the problem of recurrent caries without
jeopardizing their physicomechanical characteristics.
Aim of the study. To evaluate hardness and diametral
tensile strength (DTS) of a water-activated glassionomer
(WAGIC) enriched with increasing mass
concentration of triclosan (TRC) – the antimicrobial
agent. Material and methods. TRC was added to the
powder of WAGIC in weight concentrations of 0.5%,
1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% served as experimental groups, and
0.0% as a control group, respectively. In each group
two subgroups were defined to record Vickers hardness
(HV0.3/15) and DTS after 1 and 24 hours of storage
in distilled water. Shapiro-Wilk test of normality,
parametric (F-test or t-test) or non-parametric
(Kruskal-Wallis test or Mann-Whitney test) were used
for the purpose of statistical analysis (p = 0.05); the
equality of variance was checked with Levene’s test. Results. HV0.3/15 was significantly higher after 24 h
than after 1 h. In both cases addition of 0.5 % of TRC
caused significant decrease of hardness. DTS values
were significantly higher after 24 h with addition of
0.5 % TRC, but generally it was slightly decreased
in comparison to the control group. Conclusions.
Except 0.5 % TRC, there was no negative influence of
antimicrobial addition on HV0.3/15 and DTS, so TRC
does not deteriorate strength of WAGIC.