Fluoride-free glass-ionomer cement

The way in which fluoride is taken up by glass-ionomers has been studied using surface analysis techniques. Dynamic secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SIMS) shows that most of the fluoride becomes concentrated in the surface [248]. Its concentration with depth varies as an error function relationship [248]. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) has suggested that fluoride taken up becomes associated with calcium [249]. However, the form of this association is unclear, because calcium fluoride as such is very insoluble, and when added to a fluoride-free glass-ionomer cement, caused no fluoride to be released [234]. It therefore seems unlikely that the calcium-fluoride association results in formation of Cap2, and further research is necessary to determine the precise nature of the calcium-fluoride association, and thus to resolve this paradox. 

Resin-modified glass-ionomers, like their conventional counterparts, are capable of releasing fluoride [224,264,265], and in greater amounts under acid conditions than neutral ones [265], Release rates and release profiles have been shown to be comparable with those from conventional glass-ionomer cements [264,265], Other ions have also been shown to be released by these materials and, as for fluoride, these ions show a greater release under low pH conditions [265], However, the level of phosphorus released has been shown to be much lower from resin-modified glass-ionomers than from conventional ones [263], This suggests that there is little or no possibility of association of fluoride as monofluorophosphate, but rather that almost all of the fluoride is released either as the free fluoride ion or as alumino-fluoride complex ions. 

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