Novel calcium silicate based dental material with the addition of biologically active soy compound

Calcium silicate cements (CSC) present numerous properties that favor its use in dentistry. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the addition of soy extract affects porosity and wettability of the CSC. Soy was added to commercially available CSC named Portland cement (Italcementi, Spa Bergamo, Italy) at 10 weight % Pure Portland cement was used as a control material. Particle cement size was determined using scanning electron microscopy (TESCAN Mira3 XMU, USA Inc). Porosity of the cement was measured using micro computed tomography (μCT) (Skyscan 1172, Bruker, Belgium) at 10 μm isotropic resolution. Wettability of the cements was tested using contact angle analyzer and Endomethasone (Saint Maur, Cedex, France). Scanning electron microscopy has shown that Portland cement is composed of spherical and rods like particles ranging in size from 1 μm to 10 μm. The μCT analysis revealed that the addition of soy leads to an increased cement's porosity. Both open and closed porosity values were higher in Portland cement with soy addition than in pure Portland cement. More than 70% of pores were in the range of 20-57 μm in both investigated groups. The addition of soy resulted in lower contact angles of Endomethasone on the cement surface, suggesting that this cement formulation possesses superior wettability. It can be deduced that soy is a promising candidate for Portland cement adhesive properties improvements.