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Polymerization shrinkage of dental composite materials is recognized as one of the main reasons for the development of marginal leakage between a tooth and filling material. In addition, hydroscopic expansion due to water sorption is known to cause instability in dental materials. Several methods have been proposed to quantify the polymerization shrinkage and hydroscopic expansion. However, in the case of anisotropic materials, such as unidirectional fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs), the measurement method must allow for the discrimination of the shrinkage or expansion in the two orthogonal directions. In this work, optical fiber sensors were employed to study strains in dental materials induced by polymerization shrinkage and hydroscopic expansion.

Four dental materials were evaluated in this study: unfilled BisGMA/TEGDMA-based resin, Z250 dental restorative composite …