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This study evaluated the effect of composite pre-polymerization temperature and energy density on the marginal adaptation (MA), degree of conversion (DC), flexural strength (FS), and polymer cross-linking (PCL) of a resin composite (Filtek Z350, 3M/ESPE).

For MA, class V cavities (4mm×2mm×2mm) were prepared in 40 bovine incisors. The adhesive system Adper Single Bond 2 (3M/ESPE) was applied. Before being placed in the cavities, the resin composite was either kept at room-temperature (25°C) or previously pre-heated to 68°C in the Calset™ device (AdDent Inc., Danbury, CT, USA). The composite was then light polymerized for 20 or 40s at 600mW/cm² (12 or 24J/cm², respectively). The percentage of gaps was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy, after sectioning the restorations and preparing epoxy resin replicas. DC (n=3) was obtained by FT-Raman spectroscopy on …