Temperature dependence of the dynamic viscoelastic behavior of chemical- and light-cured composites

The relationship of temperature to the viscoelastic properties of six composites, three light-cured and three chemical-cured, was studied, using constant dynamic loading over the narrow range of temperatures (20–60°C) which can be encountered in the mouth. The parameters measured were: storage modulus G 1, loss modulus G 2, tan δ, quality factor Q, coefficient of decay α, and dynamic viscosity. It was found that the dynamic viscoelastic properties of the tested materials are temperature-dependent, but probably not to a clinically significant degree. Chemical- and light-cured composites of the same filler loading do not exhibit significantly different viscoelastic dynamic properties.