Glass ionomer cement (GIC) has theunique fluoride release property and able to formionic bond with tooth structure. However, the brittleness of the material results in low hardness. In the present study, a new approach in utilization of local waste materials as fillers for improvement of hardness of GIC is reported.The synthesized wollastonite and mine-silica by-product were individually incorporated into commercial GIC and the Vickers hardness were evaluated. The results shown that the incorporation of 1 % wollastonite into GIC gave ~ 6% increment in hardness compared to the control GIC (66.53H ±7.37 versus 62.66HV±2.98)but not for themine-silica. Thus, wollastonite could be a potential material to be utilized as fillersin dental restorative composite
Light intensity output is one of the determinants for adequate curing of visible light-cured materials. The aim of this survey was to evaluate the light intensity outputs (LIOs) of light curing units (LCUs) in dental clinics of Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) and School of Dental Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The respective LIOs of all functioning Quartz Tungsten Halogen (QTH) and Light Emitting Diode (LED) LCUs were tested using two light radiometers. For cordless LED LCUs, the testing procedure was done in situ and after being fully charged. Statistical analysis using Kruskal Wallis and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests were performed to compare the LIOs between groups and between the LIOs of in situ and post-charged cordless LED LCUs, respectively. The level of significance was set at 0.05 (p