Dent 6540 Fall 2025 Materials Concepts

Flashcards covering key concepts related to dental materials, their properties, and classifications.

The three main types of materials are __, __, and __.

metals, polymers, ceramics

Typical descriptions of metals include __, ductile, and strong.

hard

Typical descriptions of ceramics include hard, __, and strong.

brittle

The three ’stages’ of dental materials are uncured material, __ reaction, and cured material.

curing

A curing reaction transitions a material from a flowable state to a __ state.

solid or hardened

The major classes of dental materials are and cure.

direct, indirect

An advantage of an indirect placement is __ while disadvantages include multiple visits and expense.

longevity

A good description of bonding in metals is __ of electrons.

a sea

Metallic bonding results in high thermal and __ conductivity and ductility.

electrical

Metals are formed from a molten state, undergo __, and form grains.

crystallization

An alloy is a mixture of __ or more metals which improves mechanical properties.

two

At a molecular level, alloys inhibit the movement of __ and defects.

atoms

The two main types of bonding in ceramics are __ and ionic.

covalent

Most common ceramics in dentistry contain metallic oxides such as __, __, and __.

SiO2, Al2O3, K2O

The three microstructures of ceramics are __, semi-crystalline, and crystalline.

amorphous

The amorphous structure of dental porcelain provides relatively good esthetics but relatively poor __ properties.

mechanical

Polymers have a structure that resembles __ long chains like cooked spaghetti.

entangled

The four steps of chain reaction polymerization are Activation, Initiation, __, and Termination.

Propagation

A polymer is made of many __ bonded together.

monomers

The light activation step generates __.

free-radicals

Two consequences of propagation are chain growth and __ decrease or shrinkage.

volume

A monomethacrylate will produce a linear type of polymer while a __ will produce a thermoset type of polymer.

dimethacrylate

Light-curing a resin allows for a __ type of restoration.

direct

Physical mixtures of metal, ceramics, and polymers are known as __.

composites

In a composite resin, the more filler that is present, the more the composite behaves like the __ or the ceramic phase.

filler

The thermal expansion coefficient is the __ change in a material in response to temperature.

dimensional

It is important for a restorative material to match the __ of the tooth structure.

thermal expansion coefficient

Metals have high thermal conductivity while ceramics and polymers have __ thermal conductivity.

low

The clinical significance of the conductivity of metals includes __ of metals and galvanic reactions.

corrosion

The main components of optical properties are color, translucency, gloss, and __ texture.

surface

The three main components of color perception are the light source, the object, and the __ or individual.

eye

The three dimensions of color are hue, value, and __.

chroma

Two objects that appear the same color under one light source and different under another light source is known as __.

metamerism