Abstract

Glass ionomer cements (GICs) are an important class of biomedical material used extensively for color matched mercury free, dental restorations. GICs can release clinically beneficial amounts of fluoride and have acceptable handling properties which make them suitable as dental restoratives. The fluoride release of model GICs produced from specially synthesized fluoro-alumino-silicate glasses was studied. Nine glasses of varying fluoride content based on 4.5SiO(2)-3Al(2)O(3)-1.5P(2)O(5)-(5-Z)CaO-ZCaF(2) were synthesized and cement disks were prepared from them. The glass transition temperature reduced with increasing fluorine content of the glass. Fluoride ion release was measured into distilled water as a function of time for up to 140 days using a fluoride ion selective electrode. The quantity of fluoride released was found to be proportional to the fluorine content of the glass at all intervals time. The cumulative fluoride release was proportional to square root time. Substituting strontium for calcium in the glass had little influence on the fluoride release behavior of the cements.