Article
Glass-ionomer materials, first introduced in the 1970s, play an important role in restorative dentistry today, in a wide variety of applications. In order to provide an in-depth review of this subject, the editor of this book, Dr Sharanbir Sidhu, has brought together eight experts in the field from across the world.
The book follows a logical order, starting with the history of glass-ionomer materials and their development at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist in London as part of work on the setting of dental silicate cements.
Chapter 2, by Michael Burrow from Melbourne, provides details of the physical properties of glass-ionomer materials before moving on to the clinically-relevant aspect of restoration longevity. This chapter includes a large table on the performance of glass-ionomers in non-carious cervical lesions (perhaps their most common use in the UK?), with the data indicating annual loss rates of 2.7% in a 13-year study and 2.4% in a 10-year evaluation.
Geoffrey Knight, again from Australia, provides chapter 3 and gives readers a beautifully illustrated look at contemporary uses of glass-ionomer materials, including interproximal slot and tunnel restorations (although this reviewer had considered the latter as being history!) and the co-cure method of bonding auto-cure glass-ionomer cements to resin composite.
Our very own Avi Banerjee has written an interesting chapter on the use of glass-ionomer materials in minimum intervention (MI) caries management and ART, central to this being the potential for remineralization of demineralized carious dentine and the associated role of these cements in MI management of deep caries.
Chapter 5, written by Josette Camilleri from Malta, deals with the uses of glass-ionomer materials in endodontics, perhaps not something that these materials are famed for. Examples are given of root-end fillings and perforation repairs using glass-ionomer, although the chapter ends somewhat negatively in a statement that research has indicated that ‘they have been outperformed by other materials that have been developed over the years'…
Glass-ionomer materials have been considered to be highly suitable for use in children, so chapter 6 by David Manton from Melbourne and Katie Bach from Auckland is highly relevant, with a well-worded warning – ‘due to the apparent simplicity of the use of these materials, they are also prone to misuse'! The final chapter, by Joshua Cheetham of Bayswater, Australia, gives the reader a glimpse toward the future of glass-ionomer materials, with details of the possible methods which might be employed in order to improve their physical properties – such as spherical particles and/or glass fibre reinforcement, and discusses possible avenues for improvement in properties such as wear resistance. Surprisingly, there appears to be no mention of the idea of heat curing glass-ionomers, a concept designed to improve the physical properties of glass-ionomers and which seems to be the subject of increasing research.
There is no question that the book fulfils the objective of the author, namely to describe the continuing and new roles of glass-ionomer cements in restorative dentistry. It provides a useful and detailed evaluation of the current status of these materials and will be of value to academics and practitioners alike.