Effects of photoinitiators on dental composite resins: a narrative review

Abstract

In recent years, the components of dental composites have changed in an attempt to improve their biomechanical and chemical properties. Therefore, dentistry contains many different photoinitiator systems, the most common being the binary camphorquinone and tertiary amine system, and most dental light curing agents are designed to suit the camphorquinone (CQ) absorption range. The alternation of the photoinitiator can cause changes in the values of biomechanical properties, such as degree of conversion, hardness, and biocompatibility. This review contains a comparison of the biomechanical properties of dental composites including different photosensitizers, among others: camphorquinone, phenanthrenequinone, benzophenone, and 1-phenyl-1,2 propanedione, trimethyl benzoyl-diphenylphosphine oxide, benzoyl peroxide. The literature reviews used and the observation of randomized studies were from the Bireme, PubMed, SciElo, and LILACS databases from 2008 to February 2021. Objective: To present the action of light-curing agents in composite resin and their mechanical characteristics concluded that the market is constantly evolving related to photoinitiators.