Mulder, RiaanMohamed, Nadiadu Plessis, A.le Roux, S.G.2018-01-192018-01-192017Mulder, R. et al. (2017). A pilot study investigating the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites. South African Dental Journal, 72(10): 462 - 4650011-8516http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2519-0105/2017/v72no10a3http://hdl.handle.net/10566/3405OBJECTIVE: To investigate the presence of voids in bulk fill flowable composites. METHODS: This study investigated two well-known bulk-fill flowable composites, Smart Dentin Replacement (SDR) (Dentsply/Caulk, Milford, Germany) and Filtek bulk fill flowable (FBF) (3M ESPE, Minnesota, USA). Three ampules of each material were randomly selected. The ampules were subjected to 3D Micro-CT (General Electric Phoenix V|Tome|X L240) reconstruction in order to assess the presence of any voids within the ampules. RESULTS: Voids were present in all the ampules. The total void percentage for each group of three ampules was found to be SDR : 1.147 % and FBF : 0.0424 %. There was a significant difference between the volume of voids for SDR and FBF, p-value=0.003924. CONCLUSION: Voids were found in the randomly selected samples of bulk-fill flowable composites. This is undesirable and manufacturers should be urged to ensure that no voids are present, or at least are minimized in the ampules of material.enThis file may be freely used for educational uses. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this file is permitted without written permission of the South African Dental Association (SADA). Note that the SADA retains all intellectual property rights in the article.Smart Dentin Replacement (SDR)VoidsFlowable compositeBulk fillDisplacement vector fieldsArticle