Abstract
This study was conducted to investigate the thermal properties (thermal diffusivity, specific thermal capacity and thermal conductivity) of all ceramic restorative materials. Measurement of thermal properties of IPS Empress®, DiCOR® and adhesive resin cement Variolink II were performed by the Xenon flash method. The results obtained were as follows. Thermal diffusivity (×10-2cm2s-1) was 0.372-0.423 for IPS Empress®, 0.614 for DiCOR® and 0.191-0.193 for Variolink. Specific thermal capacity (Jg-1K-1) ranged from 0.695 to 0.872 for IPS Empress®, 1.119 for DiCOR® and 0.733-4.114 for Variolink. Thermal conductivity (Wm-1K-1) was 0.644-0.770 for IPS Empress®, 1.721 for DiCOR® and 0.297-0.475 for Variolink. Thermal conductivity of IPS Empress® was found to be less than that of human enamel, while that of DiCOR® was greater than that of human enamel. Thermal conductivity of Variolink was smaller than those of human enamel and dentin.
The above results indicated that IPS Empress® had greater thermal insulation capability than human enamel and dentin and that DiCOR® had less.
