title: Waviness of atraumatic restorative treatment (ART) prepared surfaces.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The wave (W) element offers a surface topography assessment method with the potential to yield unique data.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study uses glass ionomer cement specimens prepared with six Atraumatic Restorative Treatment (ART) surface treatments to explore arc- and line-modified waviness of these surfaces to determine if they gave similar results.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six specimens (5 x 1.5mm) were prepared for each of the six surface treatments: (1) surface compressed with a Vaseline lubricated finger (Va); (2) Va followed by carving with an excavator(Ca); (3) Ca burnished with a ball burnisher (Bu); (4) surface compressed with the gloved finger lubricated with poly-acrylic acid (Aa); (5) surface cured against a Mylar strip (My); (6) My polished with a white rubber sulcus wheel (Po). After storage in distilled water for seven days at 37 degrees C W(a), W(v), W(p), W(t) was analysed using arc- and line-modifications of the raw profile. The data were analysed using a General Linear Models analysis and Tukey's Studentised range test with P < 0.05.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ca and Bu; Va and Aa; and My and Po formed three groups with descending ranking order for W whether arc- or line-modified. Arc-modified tracing data was unable to statistically distinguish between surface treatments whereas line-modification showed significant differences between treatments for all parameters measured (W(a), W(v0, W(p), W(t)).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Line-modified waviness data was better able to distinguish between surface treatments than arc-modification. Wave offers unique surface topography data having potential value to dental materials researchers.
authors.affiliation: Dental Research Institute, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. elly.grossman@wits.ac.za
authors.forename: E S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Grossman
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rosen
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mickenautsch
authors.forename: P E
authors.initials: PE
authors.lastname: Cleaton-Jones
mesh_terms: D000180:Acrylic Resins / Q000627:therapeutic use; D003764:Dental Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D003775:Dental Polishing / Q000379:methods*; D005899:Glass Ionomer Cements / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D000180:Acrylic Resins; D003764:Dental Materials; D005899:Glass Ionomer Cements; C006903:carbopol 940