evaluation of hardness and wear resistance of interim restorativematerials

background: the interim restorative materials should have certain mechanical properties to withstand in oral cavity. the aim of this study was to evaluate the hardness and wear resistance ofinterim restorative materials. materials and methods: fifteen identical rectangular shape specimens with dimensions of 2 mm × 10 mm × 30 mm were made from 7 interim materials (tempspan, protemp 3 garant, revotek, unifast lc, tempron, duralay, and acropars). the vickers hardness and abrasive wear ofspecimens were tested in dry conditions and after 1 week storage in artificial saliva. the depth ofwear was measured using surface roughness inspection device. data were subjected to kruskal–wallis and mann–whitney tests. the pearson correlation coefficient was used to determine therelationship between hardness and wear (á =0.05). results: tempspan had the highest hardness. the wear resistance of tempspan (in dry condition) andrevotek (after conditioning in artificial saliva) was significantly higher ( p < 0.05). there was no statisticallysignificant correlation between degree of wear and hardness of the materials ( p = 0.281 , r = –0.31). conclusion: hardness and wear resistance of interim resins are material related rather than category specified. key words: acrylic resins, composite resins, dental restorations, dental restorations wear, hardness