Journal of

Introduction: Bleaching products with oxidizing mechanism can exert side effects on the restorative materials existing in the oral cavity. Since bleaching agents are applied in different concentrations, the present study aimed to compare the effect of different bleaching regims of carbamide peroxide on microhardness of Z₂₅₀ microhybride composite.

Methods: In this in vitro study , 32 specimens of micro hybride composite (Z₂₅₀) were made which were randomly divided into 4 subgroups (n=8): G1: bleached with10% carbamide peroxide 4 hours a day for 2 weeks G2: bleached with 16%carbamide peroxide 3 hours a day for 2 weeks G3: bleached with 22%carbamide peroxide 1hour a day for 2 weeks G4: the control subgroup stored in distilled water at 37◦c for 2 weeks. Microhardness of specimens was measured before and after bleaching using Vickers hardness testing machine. Moreover, the study data were analyzed statistically applying Anova and t-test (&alpha= 0.05).

Results: This study findings revealed that using bleaching agent significantly decreased the  microhardness of composite resin in the bleaching groups compared to the control group, though the concentration of carbamide peroxide produced no significant effect on the microhardness value. (p>0.13)

Conclusion: Bleaching therapy can cause a reduction in microhardness of Z250 composite and different concentrations of carbamide peroxide can reduce microhardness of Z250 to the same value.