Excess-Cement Clean-Up of Novel Resin-Modified Glass-Ionomer Cement: Tack Light-Cure Option

Objectives: Desirable handling characteristics of dental cements are of significant importance to the dentists. This study investigated several key properties of RelyX Luting Plus Automix (RLP-AMX, 3M ESPE), a new automix resin-modified glass-ionomer (RMGI) cement, including the ease and speed of excess cement clean-up.  RLP-AMX is a multi-dose paste/paste system that offers a tack light-cure option for faster excess cement removal.

Methods: 135 dentists that utilized different cements in their practice were asked to evaluate several handling and clinical characteristics associated with the new cement in a clinical trial conducted by an independent agency. The cement was used according to manufacturer’s directions. Dentists were given two choices on the cement excess clean-up:  traditional 2 minute wait, or 5 sec tack-light-cure of the cement on each side.  Dentists rated performance criteria for excess cement removal and the speed of clean-up.

Results: Responses were analyzed for each characteristic and summarized in tables below.  Additional data showed about 1% post-op sensitivity and overall satisfaction greater than 90%.

 

	Ease of Excess-Cement Removal, % dentists
	Self-Cure Mode	Tack Light-Cure Mode
Very Easy	37	34
Easy	42	40
Neutral	13	10
Difficult, but acceptable	3	5
Very difficult, not acceptable	2	1

 

	Faster and easier excess cement clean-up for tack light-cure option, % dentists
Strongly agree	38
Agree	40
Neutral	18
Disagree	4

Conclusions: Chi-Square and Confidence Interval tests for one and two proportions were performed.  Data for the ease of clean-up showed no statistical difference between the proportions of dentists who found the self-cure option easy/very easy, versus the number of dentists who found the tack light-cure option easy/very easy. (Using a t-test for two proportions, p=0.59).  Calculating a 95% Confidence Interval based on this data, it’s estimated that 71-85% of all dentists would find that the light-cure option provides a faster excess cement clean-up.