Five‐year randomized clinical trial to evaluate the clinical performance of high‐viscosity glass ionomer restorative systems in small class II restorations

Objective Evaluate and compare the 5‐year clinical performance of three high‐viscosity glass ionomer restorative materials in small class II restorations. Materials and Methods Forty patients, each with four class II restorations, were enrolled in this trial. A total of 160 restorations were placed, 25% for each material, as follows: three high‐viscosity conventional glass ionomer restorative systems (Ketac Universal Aplicap, EQUIA Forte and Riva Self Cure HV) and a microhybrid resin composite system (Filtek Z250). Clinical evaluation was performed at baseline and after 1, 3, and 5 years by two independent examiners using FDI criteria. Epoxy resin replicas were observed under scanning electron microscope (SEM) to examine surface characteristics. Data were analyzed with Kruskal‐Wallis, Mann–Whitney U, Friedman, and Wilcoxon signed‐rank tests (p