The porosities in dental materials can be of merit and not merit since some dental materials need to be porous in order to reduce their weight and improve their properties and functions, whereas in those (which are the majority) porosities are not Merit, see the properties of the material, the function and can even influence dental rehabilitation.
An example of this is the use of vitreous ionomers, which is a dental material, where when it is spatulated it remains porous, it can give recurrence of infectious caries, since its permeability increases, the best cariogenic microorganisms are filtered and porosity works as a retentive site for these microorganisms that make up the dental biofilm.
In summary, the world of dental materials is very wide, some are resins, other cements, others have metallic claims, etc. To say that the presence of porosity is merit or demerit would be ideal because for some materials this is favorable and for others unfavorable since they are very versatile, with different qualities, different degrees of porosity, different molecules, different coefficients of thermal expansion, some do not set, others do not, some are light-cured, others do not, some withstand more mechanical forces and have more elastic modulus and less porosity, while others do not, and thus with many more variables.
Explanation:
In the manufacture of dental materials, much attention is always paid to what the manufacturer indicates in these indications that come on the reverse side of the material or on a paper inside the material container.
This is important to know, because the manufacturer is the one that indicates the mode of use and working time according to the trademark and the chemical composition of the dental material.
That a dental material in its manufacture is more or less porous, makes its density, weight and volume possibly be affected, there are materials that seek to increase porosity for a certain purpose, while others seek the opposite, depending on the function that is applied, will have more or less pores.
The example we gave above about the vitreous ionomer is an example that indicates that in the case of restorative dental materials where the function is to SEAL the porosity is almost nil, since otherwise it will not seal the cavity that was formed with caries and not the infectious problem would be solved.
On the other hand, in the surgical field of dentistry there are bone grafts or porous macroparticles that are for the purpose of bone replacement, which in order to be integrated need blood vessels that run over these pores, irrigating the area of bone neoformation well, in this case the merit of porosity if necessary and it is essential that they be very porous.
