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 Textbook of
Dental Materials
 Textbook of
Dental Materials

Vijay Prakash MDS (Manipal)

Professor
Department of Prosthodontics and Implantology
Divya Jyoti College of Dental Sciences and Research
Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

Ruchi Gupta MDS (Rohtak)

Professor
Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics
Divya Jyoti College of Dental Sciences and Research
Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

JAYPEE BROTHERS Medical Publishers

The Health Sciences Publisher
New Delhi | London | Panama
 Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd

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Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd
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Phone: +91-11-43574357
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© 2019, Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers
The views and opinions expressed in this book are solely those of the original contributor(s)/author(s) and do not necessarily represent
those of editor(s) of the book.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publishers.
All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Medical knowledge and practice change constantly. This book is designed to provide accurate, authoritative information about the
subject matter in question. However, readers are advised to check the most current information available on procedures included and
check information from the manufacturer of each product to be administered, to verify the recommended dose, formula, method and
duration of administration, adverse effects and contraindications. It is the responsibility of the practitioner to take all appropriate safety
precautions. Neither the publisher nor the author(s)/editor(s) assume any liability for any injury and/or damage to persons or property
arising from or related to use of material in this book.
This book is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in providing professional medical services. If such advice or
services are required, the services of a competent medical professional should be sought.
Every effort has been made where necessary to contact holders of copyright to obtain permission to reproduce copyright material. If any
have been inadvertently overlooked, the publisher will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity. The CD/
DVD-ROM (if any) provided in the sealed envelope with this book is complimentary and free of cost. Not meant for sale.
Inquiries for bulk sales may be solicited at: [email protected]
Textbook of Dental Materials
First Edition: 2019
ISBN: 978-93-5270-266-4
 Dedicated to
My father late Shri CP Gupta who has always been my inspiration
Dhaanvi and Keshav for bringing immense joy in my life
All students who will continue to innovate, inspire and
practice in right spirit for the betterment of humanity.

 —Vijay Prakash

My parents, children, teachers and students

who have inspired me in the journey of life.

 —Ruchi Gupta
 Preface

The practice of dentistry is incomplete without thorough knowledge of dental materials. Being in the age of information,
it is important for health professionals, clinicians or students in dentistry to keep themselves updated. Success in clinical
practice demands not only intimate knowledge of dental materials but also the recent advances in this field. The study of
dental materials involves basic sciences, applied aspect, manipulation, techniques and methods of testing.
Textbook of Dental Materials is inspired during teaching of dental materials for more than a decade to a number of
students. During our interactions with students, we realized that there is a need for a simple, concise textbook on this
subject. Hence, we tried to write this book in simple, short format which is easy to understand, comprehensive and at
the same time covers the entire syllabus laid down by the Dental Council of India (DCI). The basic aim was to introduce
and simplify the complex subject of dental materials to young graduate students. There are numerous line diagrams,
flowcharts, tables and high quality illustrations to assist the students for better grasping of the subject.
This book contains 30 chapters which are written sequentially and divided into eight sections based on the purpose
of each material. Section 1 is on the General Properties of Dental Materials which includes three chapters, one chapter
on biocompatibility of dental materials. Section 2 contains five chapters which includes the Auxiliary Dental Materials
such as Gypsum products, Dental waxes, Casting investments, Die and die materials and finishing and polishing
materials. Section 3 is dedicated to various Impression materials covered in four chapters. Special focus is on the chapter
Elastomeric impression materials. Section 4 is based on Denture Base Materials with a chapter each on Dental polymers
and Denture base resins including the recent developments.
Next six chapters are covered in Section 5 under the broad heading of Direct Restorative Materials. This section
starts with a chapter on Dental Amalgam, its properties, mercury toxicity and hygiene. Next chapter is on Enamel and
dentin bonding agents focusing on different generations of bonding. Aesthetic restorative materials such as composite
resins is covered in detail in this chapter. Different composite restorative materials are discussed at length including
methods of polymerization. The chapter also includes recent topics such as indirect composites, flowable, packable,
nanocomposites among others. The next two chapters in this section are on Dental cements and Pulp protective agents.
The chapter on dental cements includes various cements used in dentistry, their uses, composition, classification,
properties, manipulation and recent advances. Pulp protecting agents are materials which are used in approximation
of pulp. Focus here is on direct and indirect pulp capping agents. The last chapter in this section is on Direct filling gold,
although this material is not commonly used in dentistry now but still students should learn about various aspects of this
material.
Section 6 of the book discusses various Indirect Restorative Materials such as Dental Ceramics, casting alloys and
wrought alloys. The chapter on dental ceramics includes metal ceramic restorations and all ceramic restorations in detail.
This chapter also highlights recent materials such as CAD–CAM ceramics and 3D printing. The next three chapters in
this section are dedicated to nature of alloys, casting alloys, casting procedures and its defects. Casting alloys such as
gold alloys, metal ceramic alloys and base metal alloys are discussed in detail in these chapters. A section of titanium and
its casting is also included. Casting procedures and defects are sequentially explained with the help of numerous line
diagrams and illustrations. Another chapter in this section is on Wrought alloys and its uses in dentistry. The last chapter
is on Soldering and welding procedure and techniques.
Section 7 is based on Endodontic and Preventive Materials. The chapter on Endodontic materials explores various
materials which are used in the field of endodontics. There is a wide array of materials with recent developments
discussed in this chapter. The chapter on preventive materials focuses on various materials dedicated to prevention of
dental diseases. In this chapter, a complete section is on Bleaching materials which are widely used in the practice of
dentistry.
Section 8 includes the Recent Trends in Dental Materials with a chapter each on Dental implant materials and the
latest trends in material science. The chapter on dental implant materials describes various implant materials, graft
materials and special focus on bioceramics. One of the highlights of this book is the inclusion of this chapter which
viii Textbook of Dental Materials
focuses on the materials which will be the future of dental practice. This chapter includes various materials such as smart
materials, biomimetics, zirconia-based material, use of lasers, nanotechnology, tissue regeneration techniques, and oral
cancer detection tests amongst various other materials.
In each chapter, ‘clinical significance of various materials’ are highlighted to assist students in understanding the
clinical application of that material. At the end of each chapter, a section is dedicated to ‘Test Yourself’ which includes
multiple choice questions, long questions and short notes. This section aims to help students to prepare for various
competitive examinations and university examination. Another highlight of the book is ‘Quick Revision Chart’ which
includes various materials which are commonly asked in examination for quick revision before the final examination.
Additionally, online resources for both students and instructors are provided along with this book in the form of multiple
choice questions including image-based questions, and power point presentations, respectively.
This book will not only help graduate students but also dental hygienists and dental technicians. It will be a quick
reference book for the postgraduates and clinicians. In the long run, successful practice of dentistry will involve
thorough knowledge of various materials, their correct manipulation and appropriate selection of material in a given
clinical situation. Also, mutual understanding and respect between clinicians, dental hygienists, dental technicians, and
patients will result in successful treatment outcome. We sincerely hope that young students will improve, innovate and
practice dentistry and help in taking our profession to greater heights. We wish you all success in your career.
‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’.

Vijay Prakash
Ruchi Gupta
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First of all we bow down to the Almighty God for blessing us with his kindness and wisdom to accomplish this work. Any
book written has contributions from a number of people directly or indirectly and this work is no different. We extend
our sincere and heartfelt gratitude to our teachers, who have always encouraged us to perform at the highest level and
have shaped our careers. It will always be a privilege to be associated with them. Our deepest gratitude goes to our
friends and our colleagues who have made learning a fun experience. We sincerely thank all our students over more than
a decade who have always inspired us to excel in our field.
Our love, gratitude and respect to our parents, who have always been there during the test of time. They have been
our pillars of strength and have always motivated us. Our deep appreciation goes to our family especially our brothers
and sister, for their unconditional love and support. Lots of love to our children, who have adjusted to our work time in
completing this book.
We are very grateful to the whole team of M/s Jaypee Brothers Medical Publishers (P) Ltd, who helped and guided
us, especially Shri Jitendar P Vij (Group Chairman), Mr Ankit Vij (Managing Director), Mr MS Mani (Group President),
Ms Ritu Sharma (Director–Content Strategy), Ms Sunita Katla (Executive Assistant to Group Chairman and Publishing
Manager), Ms Pooja Bhandari (Production Head), Ms Samina Khan (Executive Assistant to Director–Content Strategy),
Dr Ambika Kapoor (Development Editor), Ms Seema Dogra (Cover Visualizer), Mr Deep Kumar (DTP Operator),
Mr Amit Mathur (Graphic Designer), Ms Geeta Rani (Proofreader), and their team members, for all their support and
work on, this project and make it a success. Without their cooperation, we could not have completed this project.
 Contents

Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials ¾¾ Clinical Tips for Using Dental Materials Safely and
Effectively 47
1. Introduction to Dental Materials��������������� 3 ¾¾ Guidelines to Minimize Chemical Exposure in the
¾¾ Historical Background 3 Dental Clinic 48
¾¾ Ideal Requirements for Dental Materials 5 ¾¾ Clinical Tips to Manage Aerosols in Dental
¾¾ Evaluation of Dental Materials 6 Clinic 48
¾¾ International Organization for Standardization
(Iso), Subcommittees and Working Groups 7 Section 2: Auxiliary Dental Materials
¾¾ Development Process of Iso Standards 7
¾¾ Other Dental Standard Organizations 7 4. Gypsum Products����������������������������������������53
¾¾ Safety of Restorative Materials 8 ¾¾ Gypsum 53
¾¾ Historical Background 53
2. Structure of Matter and Properties of ¾¾ Uses 53
Dental Materials�������������������������������������������� 9 ¾¾ Manufacture of Dental Stone and Plaster 54
¾¾ States of Matter 9 ¾¾ Methods of Calcination 54
¾¾ Interatomic Bonding 9 ¾¾ Types 55
¾¾ Thermal Energy 11 ¾¾ Synthetic Gypsum 57
¾¾ Crystalline Structure 11 ¾¾ Ideal Requirements 57
¾¾ Noncrystalline or Amorphous Structures 11 ¾¾ Properties 57
¾¾ Diffusion 12 ¾¾ Setting Reaction 59
¾¾ Viscosity 12 ¾¾ Setting Time 60
¾¾ Creep 14 ¾¾ Setting of Gypsum 61
¾¾ Color and Color Perception 14 ¾¾ Factors Influencing Setting Time 62
¾¾ Thermal Conductivity 17 ¾¾ Strength 63
¾¾ Thermal Diffusivity 18 ¾¾ Dimensional Stability 64
¾¾ Coefficients of Thermal Expansion 18 ¾¾ Surface Hardness and Abrasion Resistance 64
¾¾ Tarnish and Corrosion 19 ¾¾ Reproduction of Detail 64
¾¾ Mechanical Properties 21 ¾¾ Setting Expansion 64
3. Biocompatibility of Dental Materials������ 34 ¾¾ Manipulation 66
¾¾ Infection Control 67
¾¾ Biocompatibility Challenges to Oral and
¾¾ Storage of Gypsum Products 68
Maxillofacial Materials 34
¾¾ Care for the Cast 68
¾¾ Factors Influencing Biocompatibility of a
¾¾ Disposal of the Gypsum Products 68
Material 35
¾¾ Special Gypsum Products 68
¾¾ Adverse Effects due to Exposure of Dental
Materials 35 5. Dental Waxes�����������������������������������������������72
¾¾ Role of Ada in Biocompatibility Testing 37 ¾¾ Historical Background 72
¾¾ Measuring of Biocompatibility 37 ¾¾ Uses 72
¾¾ Types of Tests 38 ¾¾ Composition 72
¾¾ Types of Test Programs for Biocompatibility ¾¾ General Properties 73
Testing 41 ¾¾ Natural Waxes 74
¾¾ Correlation Between In Vitro, ¾¾ Pattern Wax 77
Animal and Usage Tests 42 ¾¾ Inlay Pattern Wax 77
¾¾ Biocompatibility Issues in Dentistry 43 ¾¾ Impression Waxes 83
xii Textbook of Dental Materials

6. Dental Casting Investment�����������������������85 ¾¾ Modified Alginates 142

¾¾ Comparison Between Hydrocolloids 142
¾¾ Requirement of Dental Casting Investment
¾¾ Disinfection of Alginate Impression 142
Material 85
¾¾ Duplicating Materials 142
¾¾ Composition 86
¾¾ Casting Shrinkage and its Compensation 86 11. Elastomeric Impression Materials����������146
¾¾ Setting Expansion of Investment Materials 87
¾¾ Polysulfides 149
¾¾ Uses of Investment Materials 87
¾¾ Silicone Rubber Impression Material 151
¾¾ Gypsum-Bonded Investment Material 88
¾¾ Polyether Rubber Impression Material 155
¾¾ Investment for Casting High-Melting Alloys 93
¾¾ Disinfection of Elastomeric Impression 157
¾¾ Soldering Investment 97
¾¾ Recent Advances in Elastomers 157
¾¾ Investment of Titanium Alloys 97
¾¾ Impression Techniques 158
7. Die and Die Materials�������������������������������100
12. Rigid Impression Materials����������������������161
¾¾ Ideal Requirements of the Die Materials 100
¾¾ Impression Plaster 161
¾¾ Gypsum 100
¾¾ Impression Wax 161
¾¾ Die Spacer 101
¾¾ Impression Compound 161
¾¾ Divestment (Die Stone-Investment
¾¾ Zinc Oxide-Eugenol Impression Paste 164
Combination) 102
¾¾ Electroformed/Electroplated Dies 102
¾¾ Epoxy Resin Die Material 103 Section 4: Denture Base Materials
¾¾ Flexible Die Materials 103
¾¾ Silicophosphate Cement 104 13. Denture Polymers and
¾¾ Amalgam 104 Polymerization������������������������������������������173
¾¾ Metal-Sprayed Dies 104
¾¾ Vulcanite 173
8. Finishing and Polishing Agents��������������106 ¾¾ Phenol Formaldehyde 174
¾¾ Nitrocellulose 174
¾¾ Goals of Finishing and Polishing Procedure 106
¾¾ Polymethyl Methacrylate Resins 174
¾¾ Rationale of Finishing and Polishing
¾¾ Polymer 175
Procedure 106
¾¾ Instruments Used for Finishing and Polishing 14. Denture Base Resins���������������������������������184
Procedure 106
¾¾ Acrylic Resins 184
¾¾ Abrasion 107
¾¾ Ideal Requirements of Denture Base
¾¾ Abrasive 109
Materials 185
¾¾ Polishing 118
¾¾ Heat-Cured Denture Base Resins 185
¾¾ Microwave-Polymerized Resins 192
Section 3: Impression Materials ¾¾ High-Impact-Resistant Resins 193
¾¾ Rapid Heat-Polymerized Resins 193
9. Introduction to Impression Materials���129 ¾¾ Chemically Activated or Autopolymerizing
¾¾ Historical Background 129 or Self-Cure or Cold-Cure Resins 193
¾¾ Impression Trays 129 ¾¾ Light-Activated Denture Base Resins 197
¾¾ Impression 130 ¾¾ General Properties of Denture Base Resins 198
¾¾ Ideal Requirements of Impression Materials 131 ¾¾ Biocompatibility 202
¾¾ Repair of Resins 202
10. Elastic Impression Materials�������������������133 ¾¾ Relining and Rebasing Denture Bases 202
¾¾ Hydrocolloids 133 ¾¾ Soft Lining Materials 203
¾¾ Reversible Hydrocolloid—Agar 133 ¾¾ Resin Impression Trays and Tray Materials 205
¾¾ Laminate Technique or Agar-Alginate ¾¾ Denture Cleansers 205
Combination Technique 136 ¾¾ Resin Teeth for Prosthetic Applications 206
¾¾ Irreversible Hydrocolloid or Alginate 137 ¾¾ Resins as Maxillofacial Materials 206
 Contents xiii
¾¾ Temporary Resins 210 Exposure Time 267
¾¾ Occlusal Splints 210 ¾¾ Properties 268
¾¾ Inlay Patterns 210 ¾¾ Polymerization Shrinkage 271
¾¾ Resinous Die Material 211 ¾¾ Types of Composites 273
¾¾ Polymers Used as Implants 211 ¾¾ Clinical Manipulation 281
¾¾ Allergic Reactions 211 ¾¾ Repairing of Composite Restorations 284
¾¾ Troubleshooting and its Management 284
Section 5: Direct Restorative Materials ¾¾ Indirect Resin Composites 286
¾¾ Recent Advances in Composite Resins 287
15. Dental Amalgam���������������������������������������217
¾¾ Indications 218
18. Dental Cements�����������������������������������������292
¾¾ Contraindications 218 ¾¾ Ideal Requirements for Dental Cements 292
¾¾ Advantages 219 ¾¾ General Properties 293
¾¾ Disadvantages 219 ¾¾ Classification 294
¾¾ Composition 219 ¾¾ Selection of Dental Cements
¾¾ Manufacturing of Alloy Powder 220 Based on its Uses 295
¾¾ Metallurgical Phases in Dental Amalgam 221 ¾¾ Luting Agents 295
¾¾ Setting Reaction 221 ¾¾ Bonding and Retention 295
¾¾ Properties 223 ¾¾ Silicate Cement 296
¾¾ Factors Affecting the Quality of Amalgam 228 ¾¾ Zinc Phosphate Cement 298
¾¾ Factors Affecting Success of Amalgam ¾¾ Zinc Silicophosphate Cement 302
Restorations 228 ¾¾ Zinc Oxide Eugenol Cement 303
¾¾ Mercury Toxicity 233 ¾¾ Modified Zinc Oxide Eugenol Cement 306
¾¾ Mercury Hygiene 234 ¾¾ Zinc Oxide/Zinc Sulfate Temporary
¾¾ Bonded Amalgam 234 Restoration 307
¾¾ Gallium Alloys 235 ¾¾ Zinc Polycarboxylate Cement 308
¾¾ Failure of Dental Amalgam Restorations 235 ¾¾ Glass Ionomer Cement or Polyalkenoate
Cement or Aluminosilicate Polyacrylic Acid 310
16. Bonding and Bonding Agents����������������239 ¾¾ Metal Reinforced Glass Ionomer Cement 317
¾¾ Evolution of Bonding 239 ¾¾ Resin Modified Glass Ionomer Cement (Hybrid
¾¾ Indications for Use of Bonding Agents 240 Ionomer or Resin Ionomer) 318
¾¾ Advantages of Bonding 240 ¾¾ Calcium Aluminate Glass Ionomer Cement 320
¾¾ Concept of Adhesion 240 ¾¾ Compomers 320
¾¾ Substrate Structure 242 ¾¾ Giomers 322
¾¾ Adhesion to Tooth Structure 243 ¾¾ Resin Cements 322
¾¾ Dentin Bonding Agent 245 ¾¾ Sandwich Technique 326
¾¾ Properties of Dentin Bonding Agents 248 ¾¾ Atraumatic Restorative Treatment 327
¾¾ Smear Layer 249
¾¾ Hybridization Theory 249
19. Pulp Protective Agents����������������������������332
¾¾ Etiology of Various Pulpal Irritants 332
17. Composite Restorative Materials�����������258 ¾¾ Pulp Protecting Agents 332
¾¾ Evolution of Composite Resin Material 258 ¾¾ Cement Bases 333
¾¾ Applications and Uses 259 ¾¾ Sub-bases 335
¾¾ Contraindications 259 ¾¾ Cavity Varnish 338
¾¾ Ideal Requirements 259 ¾¾ Cavity Liner 339
¾¾ Composition 259 ¾¾ Direct Pulp Capping 340
¾¾ Curing of Dental Composites 264 ¾¾ Indirect Pulp Capping 341
¾¾ Curing Lamps 266 ¾¾ Methods of Pulp Protection Under Different
¾¾ Curing Depth, Degree of Conversion and Restorations 342
xiv Textbook of Dental Materials

20. Direct Filling Gold�������������������������������������344 ¾¾ Solid Solutions 401

¾¾ Eutectic Alloys 401
¾¾ Historical Events 344
¾¾ Peritectic Alloys 402
¾¾ General Properties 345
¾¾ Intermetallic Compounds 402
¾¾ Uses 345
¾¾ Alloy Strengthening Mechanisms 403
¾¾ Contraindications 345
¾¾ Advantages 345 23. Dental Casting Alloys�������������������������������405
¾¾ Disadvantages 346
¾¾ Historical Background 405
¾¾ Gold Foil 346
¾¾ Ideal Requirements for Casting Alloys 405
¾¾ Storage of Direct Filling Gold 350
¾¾ Precious Metal Alloys 407
¾¾ Desorption or Degassing 350
¾¾ Function of Alloying Elements 408
¾¾ Methods of Degassing or Desorption 351
¾¾ Properties 410
¾¾ Hazards of Overheating of Direct Filling Gold
¾¾ Alloys for Metal-Ceramic Restorations 410
Materials and their Remedy 352
¾¾ High Noble and Noble Alloys 412
¾¾ Underheating of Direct Filling Gold 352
¾¾ Base Metal Alloys 415
¾¾ Condensation or Compaction of
¾¾ Titanium and its Alloys 419
Direct Filling Gold 352
¾¾ Principles of Condensation 353 24. Casting Procedures and
¾¾ Types of Gold Condensers 354
Casting Defects�����������������������������������������424
¾¾ General Steps for Insertion of Direct Filling Gold
Restoration in a Prepared Cavity 354 ¾¾ Fabrication of Wax Pattern 424
¾¾ Technique for Compacting ¾¾ Removal of Wax Pattern 425
Direct Filling Gold 355 ¾¾ Spruing the Wax Pattern 426
¾¾ Mechanical Considerations in ¾¾ Crucible Former or Sprue Former 428
Direct Filling Gold 356 ¾¾ Casting Ring Liner 428
¾¾ Biological Considerations of ¾¾ Investing Procedure 429
Direct Filling Gold 356 ¾¾ Low Heat Technique 431
¾¾ Properties of Compacted Gold 356 ¾¾ High Heat Technique 431
¾¾ Decline in Direct Gold Restorations 357 ¾¾ Casting 432
¾¾ Laws of Castings 436
¾¾ Casting Defects 437
Section 6: Indirect Restorative Materials
25. Wrought Alloys������������������������������������������444
21. Dental Ceramics����������������������������������������361 ¾¾ Deformation of the Metal Alloy 444
¾¾ Evolution 361 ¾¾ Imperfections in Crystal Structure 444
¾¾ General Properties 362 ¾¾ Dislocation Movement in Polycrystalline
¾¾ Basic Structure 363 Alloys 446
¾¾ Manufacture of Porcelain 364 ¾¾ Twinning 447
¾¾ Metal Ceramic Prosthesis 365 ¾¾ Effects of Annealing on Cold Worked Metal 447
¾¾ Metal Ceramic Bond 367 ¾¾ Recovery 447
¾¾ All Ceramic Restorations 377 ¾¾ Recrystallization 448
¾¾ Porcelain Repair 391 ¾¾ Grain Growth 448
¾¾ Cementation 392 ¾¾ Ideal Requirements for Orthodontic Wires 449
¾¾ Porcelain Denture Teeth 392 ¾¾ Factors Considered During Selection of
¾¾ Abrasiveness of Porcelain 393 Wires 449
¾¾ Manufacturing of Orthodontic Wires 449
22. Nature of Metals and Alloys��������������������396 ¾¾ Carbon Steel 449
¾¾ Metals and Alloys 396 ¾¾ Stainless Steel 450
¾¾ Alloy Systems 399 ¾¾ Cobalt-Chromium-Nickel Alloys 454
¾¾ Phase Diagrams and Alloys 400 ¾¾ Nickel-Titanium Alloys 455
 Contents xv
¾¾ Beta-Titanium Alloys 457 ¾¾ Desensitizing Agents 499
¾¾ Wrought Noble Metal Alloys 458 ¾¾ Mouth Guards and Splints 500
¾¾ Bleaching Materials 502
26. Soldering and Welding����������������������������461
¾¾ Historical Background 461 Section 8: Recent Trends in Dental Materials
¾¾ Types of Soldering 461
¾¾ Components of Dental Soldering 462
29. Dental Implant Materials�������������������������509
¾¾ Ideal Requirements of a Dental Solder 462
¾¾ Properties of Dental Solders 466 ¾¾ Historical Considerations 509
¾¾ Technique of Soldering 467 ¾¾ Classification of Dental Implants 510
¾¾ Soldering Procedure 467 ¾¾ Indications and Contraindications 512
¾¾ Welding 468 ¾¾ Concept of Osseointegration 512
¾¾ Healing Process in Implants 514
¾¾ Components of Dental Implants 515
Section 7: Endodontic and Preventive Materials ¾¾ Success Criteria of Implants 516
¾¾ Implant Materials 516
27. Endodontic Materials�������������������������������475 ¾¾ Bone Augmentation Materials 518
¾¾ Irrigating Materials 475 ¾¾ Mechanism of Bone Augmentation 518
¾¾ Chelating Agents 477 ¾¾ Bone Grafts 519
¾¾ Mixture of Tetracycline, Acid and Detergent 478 ¾¾ Bone Graft Substitutes 520
¾¾ Intracanal Medicaments 479 ¾¾ Biocompatibility of Dental Implants 523
¾¾ Camphorated Monochlorophenol 479 ¾¾ Biomechanics in Dental Implants 523
¾¾ Corticosteroids 481
¾¾ Antibiotics 481 30. Latest Trends in Material Science�����������527
¾¾ Placement of Intracanal Medicament 481 ¾¾ Requirements for Ideal Biomaterial 527
¾¾ Root Canal Sealer 482 ¾¾ Smart Materials 527
¾¾ Silicone-based Sealers 484 ¾¾ Zirconia Implants and Abutments 528
¾¾ Obturating Materials 484 ¾¾ Lasers in Dentistry 528
¾¾ Gutta-Percha 485 ¾¾ Nanotechnology in Dentistry 530
¾¾ Resilon 487 ¾¾ Biomimetic Materials 532
¾¾ Retrograde Filling Material 488 ¾¾ Self-assembling Materials 532
¾¾ Calcium Enriched Mixture 489 ¾¾ Self-healing Materials 532
¾¾ Diaket 489 ¾¾ Bone Grafting Materials 532
¾¾ Polymethylmethacrylate Bone Cement 489 ¾¾ Bioactive Materials 534
¾¾ Detection and Treatment of Oral Cancer Using
28. Preventive and Bleaching Materials������492 Nanotechnology 534
¾¾ Dental Plaque 492 ¾¾ Tissue Engineering 535
¾¾ Antiplaque Agents 492 ¾¾ Stem Cells 536
¾¾ Bisbiguanide Antiseptics 493 ¾¾ Green Dentistry 536
¾¾ Demineralization and ¾¾ Evidence-based Dentistry 537
Remineralization Cycle 493
Appendix: Dental Products
¾¾ Fluoride 494
¾¾ Beta Tricalcium Phosphate 497 Standard Technical Specifications��������������������������539
¾¾ Pit and Fissure Sealants 497 Glossary�������������������������������������������������������������������������542
¾¾ Preventive Resin Restorations 499 Index�������������������������������������������������������������������������������565
 Section 1
General Properties of Dental Materials

Chapter 1: Introduction to Dental Materials

Chapter 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials
Chapter 3: Biocompatibility of Dental Materials

Chapter-01.indd 1 06-Jul-18 9:46:10 AM

Chapter-01.indd 2 06-Jul-18 9:46:10 AM
 Chapter

Introduction to Dental Materials

1
Chapter Outline
ƒƒ Historical Background ƒƒ International Organization for Standardization (Iso),
ƒƒ Ideal Requirements for Dental Materials Subcommittees and Working Groups
ƒƒ Classification ƒƒ Development Process of Iso Standards
ƒƒ Evaluation of Dental Materials ƒƒ Other Dental Standard Organizations
ƒƒ Safety of Restorative Materials

‘The way to get started is to quit talking and start doing’.

—Walt Disney

Zirconia (YSZ) can also be used for endodontic post and

INTRODUCTION core and manufacturing implant body.
Throughout the history of human civilization, replacement Dental composites, cements and polymers are
of lost body parts has challenged mankind and replacement commonly used as preventive as well as restorative material.
of tooth and adjacent structures is no exception. Dental Some of these materials are capable of releasing sustained
practitioners have always sought for an ideal material which and controlled agents capable of preventing dental disease
will replace the lost tooth and adjacent tissues thus, restoring such as dental caries.
esthetics and function. The quest for an ideal material will However, despite massive strides in technology in
continue to be focused by the clinicians worldwide. The dentistry still there is a search for ideal restorative material.
practice of dentistry is largely dependent on material, its
manipulation and techniques of use. Material science will HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
keep on evolving with newer innovations and techniques
and dental practitioners will have to keep updated with Timeline for history of dental materials is as follows:
latest information which would be highly valuable for • 4500–4000 BC: Babylonians, Assyrians and Egyptians
treating the patient more efficiently and effectively. were familiar with silver, gold, copper and lead
• 990 BC: Iron was used by Phoenicians
• 700–500 BC: Gold crowns and bridges were commonly
DEFINITION used by Etruscans
The science of dental material is dealing with the • About 100 AD: Celsus advocated the use of lint and lead
development, properties, manipulation, care, evolution, for filling large cavities
and evaluation of materials used in the treatment and • 1480: Johannes Arculanus used gold leaf to fill cavities
prevention of dental diseases. to restore teeth
Dental materials can be broadly categorized as metals, • 1460–1520: Giovanni de Vigo described the removal of
ceramics, composites and polymers. caries before using gold leaf for filling the cavities
Metals in pure form are rarely used in dentistry except • 1562: Ambroise Pare prepared artificial teeth from bone
pure titanium and gold foils. Pure titanium finds application and ivory (Fig. 1.1)
in fabrication of dental implants, inlays, onlays, crowns and • 1728: Pierre Fauchard called Father of Modern Dentistry
fixed dental prosthesis. Pure gold in form of gold foils is used (Fig. 1.2), described materials and practices in dentistry
as directly filling material, which is rare currently. in his book Le chirurgien dentiste, ou Traite des dents
Dental ceramic is widely used to fabricate inlays, onlays, • 1746: Claude Mouton introduced the gold shell crowns
crowns and fixed dental prosthesis. Metal ceramic and which were swaged from one piece of metal
all ceramic restorations are commonly used because of • 1756: Philip Pfaff first used plaster models prepared from
improved strength and higher esthetics. Yttria Stabilized sectional wax impressions

Chapter-01.indd 3 06-Jul-18 9:46:10 AM

 4 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

Fig. 1.1: Ambroise Pare. Fig. 1.2: Pierre Fauchard, father of modern dentistry.

• 1789: Dr John Greenwood made dentures for US

President George Washington (Fig. 1.3)
• 1801: First American book on dentistry published by RC
Skinner titled as ‘Treatise on the Human teeth’
• 1812: Gold foil produced by Marcus Bull
• 1832: James Snell introduced the zinc oxychloride
cement
• 1833: Silver paste which was amalgam of silver and
mercury was introduced in the United States by
Crawcour brothers
• 1838: Ash tube tooth was first marketed (Fig. 1.4)
• 1840: First dental school called the Baltimore College of
Dental Surgery established in the United States
• 1864: Rubber dam introduced to isolate teeth by Barnum
• 1870: Zinc phosphate cement was first used
• 1878: Richmond Crown was introduced Fig. 1.3: Dentures for American President George Washington made
• 1878: Silicate cement developed by Fletcher with ivory, wood and metal fasteners.
• 1885: Davis Crown was introduced
• 1889: Charles Land introduced porcelain jacket crowns
and high fusing inlays
• 1907: WH Taggart introduced Lost wax technique for
casting
• 1930: Unfilled resins as PMMA (poly methyl
methacrylate) were first used as denture base resins
• 1938: First nylon toothbrush introduced with synthetic
bristles
• 1942: Diamond abrasive instruments introduced for
dental use
• 1949: Oskar Hagger first bonded acrylic resin with the
tooth dentin
• 1951: Inorganic fillers were added to the direct filling
materials
• 1955: Michael Buonocore first introduced the acid etch
technique for bonding to tooth enamel Fig. 1.4: Ash’s tube teeth.

Chapter-01.indd 4 06-Jul-18 9:46:11 AM

 CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Dental Materials 5
• 1956: RL Bowen developed the first generation dentin Classification of Dental Materials
adhesive
• 1962: Bowen developed Bis-GMA which was used as • According to their use
composite resins for restorations –– Preventive materials: Those materials which
• 1965: PI Branemark first placed dental implant in help in preventing or inhibiting the progression of
human jaw dental caries. These materials have antibacterial
• 1968: Smith introduced the zinc polycarboxylate properties and can prevent leakage. For example,
cement pit and fissure sealants, liners, bases, cements
• 1971: Dr Francois Duret (France)—First developed releasing fluoride, chlorhexidine, etc.
dental CAD-CAM system –– Restorative materials: Those materials which
• 1972: Glass ionomer cement was introduced by A Wilson are used to repair or replace tooth structure. For
and Kent example, amalgams, composites, compomers,
• 1977: Light cure composites first introduced in the cast metals, metal ceramics, ceramics and denture
market polymers
• 1980s: Introduction of lasers in dentistry –– Auxiliary materials: Those materials which are
• 1985: Dr Werner Mormann and Dr Marco Brandestini used in the process of fabricating dental prosthesis
(Switzerland)—developed the first commercial CAD- but are not part of the prosthesis. For example,
CAM system (CEREC) acid etchant, dental waxes, gypsum products,
• 1996: Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) burs were bleaching trays, impression materials, acrylic resin
introduced for efficient cutting used for fabricating mouth guards or occlusal
• 1997: Swift–Ferrari–Goracci introduced the self-etching splints.
adhesives • According to their location of fabrication
• 1997: Erbium YAG laser was first used on dentin to treat –– Direct restorative materials: Those materials
tooth decay which are used to restore prepared cavity directly
• 2007: Seventh generation bonding agents were in the mouth. For example, amalgam, composite
introduced materials, glass ionomers, etc.
• 2009: CEREC AC powered by BlueCam was introduced • According to the duration of their use
to make impressions and create crowns or veneers –– Temporary restorations: Those restorative
chairside. materials which are used for short period of
time such as few days to few weeks. For example,
temporary cements
IDEAL REQUIREMENTS FOR DENTAL –– Permanent restorations: Those restorative
mater ials which are us ed for long­- ter m
MATERIALS
applications. For example, inlays, onlays, crowns,
partial dentures, fixed partial dentures.
Although currently no single dental material meets all the
• According to the chemical nature of the materials
ideal requirements.
–– Metals: These materials solidify with their atoms
The requirements for an ideal dental material is given
in a regular or crystalline arrangements. They
below:
have high strength and hardness. They are good
• Should be biocompatible, nonirritating, nontoxic and inert
conductors of heat and electricity
• Should have adequate strength to resist masticatory
–– Ceramics: It is a compound which is formed by
load
the union of metallic and nonmetallic elements.
• Should be tarnish and corrosion resistant
These materials have high strength and hardness
• Should be dimensionally stable
which are chemically inert
• Should be esthetic
–– Polymers : These are long-chain organic
• Should be easy to manipulate and should be easily
molecules which are characterized by covalent
available
bonds between each molecule. They are poor
• Should be odorless and tasteless
conductors of heat and electricity
• Should have good bonding to the tooth and other
–– Ceramics: These materials are combination of
restorative materials
basic metallic, ceramic and polymeric materials.
• Should be easily repairable
They can be metal-polymer composite such as die.
• Should be economical.

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 6 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials
A dental device classification panel developed to
EVALUATION OF DENTAL classify devices used in dentistry based on the relative risk,
MATERIALS is as follows:
In 1919, the US Army approached the National Bureau of
Classification of Dental Devices
Standards to set up specifications for the evaluation and
selection of dental amalgam to be used for Federal services. • Class I devices: These devices are considered to be of
The research was carried out under the leadership of Wilmer low risk and are subjected to general controls, which
Souder and was published in 1920. Later in the year 1928, include registration of manufacturer’s registration,
American Dental Association (ADA) was established. ADA practices followed and record keeping
laid down specifications for each dental material to be used • Class II devices: If the devices are not adequate
clinically. In this year ADA took over the dental research to ensure safety and effectiveness. These devices
section at the National Bureau of Standards. are required to meet the performance standards
established by the Food and Drug Administration
ADA Acceptance Program • Class III devices: The most stringent category. It
desires that material or device should be approved
ADA developed the ADA acceptance program (Fig. 1.5) for safety and effectiveness before given permission
to identify the physical and chemical properties of the for marketing.
material that ensures satisfactory performance of the
material when properly manipulated. All dental products or devices should adhere to
The products launched by the manufacturer are appropriate specification or standards. The manufacturer is
tested to comply with the required specifications. If responsible to comply with these specifications solely. It is
the material clears the required specification it is given important for a product to display the following information:
seal of acceptance. This can be provisional or complete • Serial number
acceptance depending on the extensiveness of the clinical • Composition
and laboratory results. In the year 1993, ADA published • Physical properties as obtained after standard test
the report Clinical Products in Dentistry—A Desktop • Biocompatibility data if needed
Reference which listed all the accepted, certified dental • Information about every provision of official specification
materials, instruments, equipment and therapeutics. This about that product.
served as quick reference guide to update dentists about
new products and helped in selection of various materials. International Standards
In 1976, Medical Devices Amendments were signed into
the law to protect the human population from hazardous With the increase in demand for dental devices around the
and ineffective devices used in medical or dental field. world, the tests for safety and effectiveness should confirm
to the international standards. There are two organizations
namely FDI (Fédération Dentaire Internationale) and the
ISO (International Organization for Standardization) which
work toward establishing international specification for
dental materials. Initially, FDI formulated international
specifications for dental materials and later ISO which is
a nongovernment international organization developed
international standards.
The specifications are highly beneficial for dentist
worldwide to select materials based on criteria which
are impartial and reliable. On request from the FDI, the
ISO organization established a technical committee
(TC) for dentistry called as TC 106. This committee is
involved in standardizing and testing methods to develop
specifications for dental materials, equipments, appliances
and instruments.
ISO technical committee—TC 106 Dentistry was
established based on the FDI specification and ISO
Fig. 1.5: ADA seal of acceptance. standards. Later subcommittees were formed to cover all

Chapter-01.indd 6 06-Jul-18 9:46:11 AM

 CHAPTER 1: Introduction to Dental Materials 7
the dental products. For example, TC 106/SC 1 restorative • TC 106/SC 8: Dental Implants
and filling materials. Under this category, 5 WG are included:
–– TC 106/SC 8/WG 1: Implantable materials
INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATION –– TC 106/SC 8/WG 2: Preclinical biological evaluation
FOR STANDARDIZATION (ISO), and testing
SUBCOMMITTEeS AND WORKING –– TC 106/SC 8/WG 3: Content of technical files
–– TC 106/SC 8/WG 4: Mechanical testing
GROUPS –– TC 106/SC 8/WG 5: Dental implants—terminology.
In 2011, TC 106 Dentistry formed 7 subcommittees and
58 working groups to develop specifications for testing DEVELOPMENT PROCESS OF ISO
the safety and efficacy of dental products. Out of the 7
committees, 3 are involved and cover most of the dental
STANDARDS
restorative materials listed by the ISO standard program In the first phase, the working group of a particular product
under the guidance of TC 106. are involved and the technical experts of interested countries.
The three subcommittees are given below: An agreement is established between them and then in the
• TC 106/SC 1: Filling and Restorative Materials second phase, the countries involved determine the detailed
Under this category, 10 working groups (WG) are specifications within the standard. The last and final
included: phase involves drafting of the final approval called Draft
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 1: Zinc oxide eugenol cements and International Standard (DIS) by at least 75% of all voting
non-eugenol cements members. After this, it is published in the ISO International
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 2: Endodontic materials Standard.
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 5: Pit and fissure sealants Most of these standards require periodic revision due
–– TC 106/SC 1/ WG 7: Amalgam or mercury to technological advancement, new materials and methods
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 9: Resin-based filling materials and safety requirements. All ISO standards require revision
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 10: Dental luting cements, bases at the interval of not more than 5 years. Some of these
and liners standards may require revision earlier than that.
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 11: Adhesion test methods
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 13: Orthodontic products OTHER DENTAL STANDARD
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 14: Orthodontic elastics
–– TC 106/SC 1/WG 15: Adhesive components.
ORGANIZATIONS
• TC 106/SC 2: Prosthodontics Materials Other dental standard organizations are:
Under this category, 16 WG are included: • Australian Dental Standards laboratory: Established
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 1: Dental ceramics in 1936
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 2: Dental base alloys • NIOM (Nordiska Institutet for Odontologisk Material
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 6: Color stability test methods provning): It was established for Scandinavian countries
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 7: Impression materials (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden)
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 8: Noble metal casting alloys in 1969, for testing, certifying and research regarding
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 10: Resilient lining materials dental materials and equipments. This institute became
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 11: Denture base polymers functional in 1973
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 12: Corrosion test methods • CEN (Comite Europeen de Normalisation): It established
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 13: Investments the Task Group 55 to develop European standards.
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 14: Dental brazing materials CE denotes the mark of conformity with the Essential
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 16: Polymer veneering and die Requirements in the Medical Device Directive. CEN
materials describes dental materials, implants and equipment
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 18: Dental waxes and baseplate in Europe as ‘medical devices used in dentistry’. All the
waxes medical devices used in dentistry marketed in Europe
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 19: Wear test methods should have the seal of CE mark of conformity.
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 20: Artificial teeth The field of research in dentistry is expanding in areas
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 21: Metallic materials of metallurgy, material science, mechanical engineering,
–– TC 106/SC 2/WG 22: Magnetic attachments. engineering mechanics, ceramics and polymer science.

Chapter-01.indd 7 06-Jul-18 9:46:11 AM

 8 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials
These fields suggest interdisciplinary approach when A component in a dental material is capable of
examining a material. Ultimate test of material is the producing an allergic reaction in an individual. A chemical
function and longevity in the patient’s mouth. Also, clinical agent can induce an antigen–antibody reaction and patient
reviews of specifications of various dental materials become can show signs and symptoms of allergy. Although allergy
more essential with the increased focus on “evidence-based and side effects in dental treatment is extremely low which
dentistry”. is reported as 0.14% in the general population.

SAFETY OF RESTORATIVE CONCLUSION

MATERIALS There has been marked increase in newer materials,
There is no dental material which can be considered equipment and techniques in dentistry. A professional is
absolutely safe. The term safety is relatively based on the expected to have an update on these materials because of
assumption that advantage of using a material far outweighs the change in demands of modern dental practice. There
the drawbacks of using it. The two main biological effects will be greater restorative needs in future because of more
are allergic and toxic reactions. emphasis on preventive treatment. Research in dental
A Swiss based alchemist named Paracelsus (1493–1541 materials is no longer confined to only material science
AD) formulated a principle on which the current field but has an interdisciplinary approach also because of
of toxicology exists. He stated that, All substances are, interaction of materials at cellular and molecular levels.
poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose Also studies on tissue regeneration will continue and can, in
differentiates a poison from a remedy. future, totally change the concept of current use of materials.

Test Yourself
Essay Questions Answers
1. Classify dental materials? Write the ideal requirements 1. C 2. C
of dental materials? Add a note on evaluation of dental
materials?
2. Describe various international standards for evaluating BIBLIOGRAPHY
safety of dental materials? 1. American Dental Association: Clinical Products in Dentistry:
A Desktop Reference. Chicago; 1983.
2. American Dental Association: Dentist’s Desk Reference:
Short Notes
Materials, Instruments and Equipment, 2nd edition. Chicago;
1. ADA acceptance program. 1983.
2. Auxillary materials. 3. American Dental Association: Guide to Dental Materials and
Devices, 8th edition. Chicago; 1976.
4. Anusavice KJ. Phillip’s Science of Dental Materials, 11th
Multiple Choice Questions edition. Saunders St. Louis; 2003.
1. An ideal restorative material should be all, except 5. Craig RG, Powers JM. Restorative Dental Materials, 11th
edition. St. Louis, Mosby; 2001.
A. Compatible with natural tissues
6. Lufkin AW. A History of Dentistry, 3rd edition. Philadelphia,
B. Should match adjacent tooth structure
Lea and Febiger; 1948.
C. Should bond mechanically to the tooth 7. O’ Brien, William J. Dental Materials and Their Selection, 2nd
D. Should initiate repair of tissues edition. Chicago, Quintessence; 1997.
2. Auxillary dental materials: 8. Ring ME. John Greenwood, Dentist to President Washington.
A. Helps in preventing caries J Calif Dent Assoc. 2010;38(12):846-51.
B. Helps in restoring decayed tooth 9. Weinberger BW. An Introduction to the History of Dentistry
C. Facilitate in fabrication of dental prosthesis in America: Volume Two, 1st edition. St. Louis, Mosby, 1948.
D. Helps in repairing damaged tooth p. 408.

Chapter-01.indd 8 06-Jul-18 9:46:11 AM

 Chapter
Structure of Matter and
Properties of Dental Materials 2
Chapter Outline
ƒƒ States of Matter ƒƒ Creep
ƒƒ Interatomic Bonding ƒƒ Color and Color Perception
ƒƒ Thermal Energy ƒƒ Thermal Conductivity
ƒƒ Crystalline Structure ƒƒ Thermal Diffusivity
ƒƒ Noncrystalline or Amorphous Structures ƒƒ Coefficients of Thermal Expansion
ƒƒ Diffusion ƒƒ Tarnish and Corrosion
ƒƒ Viscosity ƒƒ Mechanical Properties

‘Run when you can, walk if you have to, crawl if you must; just never give up’.
—Dean Karnazes

atom. It is the attraction between atoms and molecules

IntroductIon which forms a structure which are visible and can be felt.
It is important to understand various properties of dental Atoms and molecules are held together by atomic
materials which help in their selection. The knowledge of interactions forming crystalline, semi-crystalline
their atomic structure determines the performance of these and amorphous solid structures below their melting
materials whether they are ceramic, polymeric or metallic. temperatures. When a liquid is heated, energy is required
Therefore, it is essential to have the basic understanding of the to convert liquid into vapor. The amount of energy required
atomic structures of dental materials and their interaction. for this conversion is called as latent heat of vaporization.
For example, to boil 1 g of water at 100°C and 1 atmospheric
pressure it requires 540 calories of heat.
StAtES oF MAttEr Similarly, if kinetic energy of a liquid is reduced
sufficiently when its temperature is reduced a second
Matter mainly occurs in the form of three states namely,
transformation occurs, i.e. conversion from liquid to solid.
solid, liquid and gas. It is essentially made of large number
This energy is called latent heat of fusion. It is the amount of
of atoms belonging to a particular structure.
energy required to convert 1 g of liquid into solid at a given
The term atom is derived from a Greek word ‘atomos’ temperature and pressure. For example, 80 calories of heat
which means ‘uncuttable’. It is believed that around 460 B.C. is released when 1 g of water freezes.
Democritus a Greek philosopher proposed that all matter is Some solids can directly transform into a gaseous state
made up of invisible particles which he named as atomos. through a process of sublimation, e.g. formation of dry ice.
Atom is composed of nucleus which is surrounded by However, this phenomenon is of little use in dentistry.
negatively charged electrons called the ‘electron cloud’.
The nucleus is a mixture of positively charged protons and
electrically neutral neutrons except in a hydrogen atom IntErAtoMIc BondInG
there is no neutrons. The electrons which surrounds the An atom is considered electronically stable if it has eight
nucleus exists in different clouds at various energy levels. electrons in the outermost valence shell, e.g. noble gases
An atom if it gains electrons is called as negative ion and if except helium which has only two electrons in the outermost
it looses electrons it is called as positive ion. shell. When one atom shares, loses or gains electrons from
The combination of two or more atoms form a molecule other atoms to form eight electrons in outermost shell then
which is an electrically neutral entity. For example, Water it achieves a stable configuration. This process between
(H2O) is composed of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atoms form a strong or a primary bond. Likewise bonding

Chapter-02.indd 9 06-Jul-18 10:51:32 AM

 10 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials
also occurs between atoms and molecules but with much In dentistry it occurs in many organic compounds such
weaker forces called as the secondary bonds. as dental resins.
Interatomic bonds that hold atoms together can be
classified as primary and secondary. Metallic Bonds
Classification of Interatomic Bonds This type of bonding occurs in metals such as pure gold. In
this the valence electrons in the outermost shell are loosely
• Types of primary interatomic bonds:
bound to the nuclei and easily removed by even low thermal
–– Ionic
energies to form a ‘cloud’ of free electrons (Fig. 2.3). These
–– Covalent
free electrons form positive ions which are neutralized
–– Metallic.
by acquiring new valence electrons from adjacent atoms.
• Types of secondary interatomic bonds:
They are responsible for excellent electrical and thermal
–– Hydrogen bonds
conductivity of metals and their ability to deform plastically.
–– Van der Waals forces.
The ease of flow of these free electrons controls the electrical
and thermal conductivities of metals. Deformability is
Primary Interatomic Bonds however, associated with the slip of atoms along the crystal
Ionic Bonds planes. The electrons during slip deformation can easily
regroup to retain the cohesive nature of the metal. For
It occurs between positive and negative charges by strong example, gold, platinum, silver, palladium.
electrostatic forces of attraction, e.g. NaCl sodium chloride,
in this the sodium atom donates its single electron of
outermost shell to chlorine to completely fill its outermost
shell resulting in a stable compound (Fig. 2.1).
In dentistry ionic bonding occurs in crystalline phases
of some dental materials such as gypsum products and
phosphate-based cements.

Covalent Bonds
This type of bonding is due to sharing of one or more
electrons of the outermost orbit of the atoms.
One characteristic feature of covalent bonding is their
directional orientation (Fig. 2.2).
For example, hydrogen molecule is a classic example of
covalent bonding. In a molecule of H2, one valence electron
of each hydrogen atom is shared with another combining
Fig. 2.2: Covalent bonding.
atom to result in a covalent bonding.

Fig. 2.3: Formation of metallic bond by gas or cloud of free electrons

Fig. 2.1: Ionic bonding between the NaCl atoms. binding atoms together in a lattice structure.

Chapter-02.indd 10 06-Jul-18 10:51:32 AM

 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 11
Secondary Interatomic Bonds tHErMAL EnErGY
The secondary bonds unlike the primary bonds do not It is the amount of kinetic energy of the atoms or molecules
share electrons but they induce dipole forces which at a given temperature. Higher the temperature, greater
are capable of attracting adjacent molecules or part will be vibration of atoms resulting in increase of mean
of a large molecule. interatomic spacing as well as the internal energy. The
overall effect is known as thermal expansion.
Hydrogen Bonding As the temperature of the crystal continues, the
This type of bonding occurs because of induction of polar interatomic spacing will continue to increase eventually
forces due to variation of charges among the molecules. resulting in a change of state. A solid state changes to liquid
Hydrogen bond formation occurs between water molecules. and the liquid state changes to vapor. Linear coefficient
The electric charge distribution in water molecules is of thermal expansion of materials with similar atomic or
asymmetric. The proton side of the water molecule is molecular structures tends to be inversely proportional to
positively charged, i.e. the side which is pointing away the melting temperature.
from the oxygen atom whereas the opposite side is Thermal conductivity depends on the number of free
negatively charged. This leads to formation of a permanent electrons in the material. In a metallic structures such as
dipole which represents an asymmetric molecule. The casting alloys, dental amalgam, number of free electrons
intermolecular reactions which occurs between various are available making them good conductors of heat and
organic compounds can be understood when a positive electricity whereas nonmetallic structures such as acrylic
portion of one molecule is attracted to the negative portion resins, resin-based composites have very less free electrons
of the adjacent molecule it results in the formation of making them poor conductors of heat and electricity.
hydrogen bridges.
For example, sorption of water by synthetic resins. crYStALLInE StructurE
In crystalline solid atoms are arranged symmetrically in a
Van der Waals Forces space lattice by either primary or secondary forces ensuring
These are weak short range forces which occur due to they have minimum internal energies. Space lattice is
dipole moments between the molecules having asymmetric defined as any arrangement of atoms in space in which
charge distribution. This fluctuating dipole attracts other every atom is situated similarly to every other atom.
similar dipoles. Generally electrons of the atoms are equally In all there are 14 possible lattice types or forms, but
distributed around the nucleus and produces electrostatic most of the crystalline solids used in dentistry have cubic
field around them which has a tendency of fluctuating, i.e. arrangements.
charge becoming either negative or positive (Fig. 2.4). For example, dental amalgam, cast alloys, wrought
For example, chemisorption of gases by alloy liquids, metals, gold foil, pure ceramics such as zirconia, alumina.
attraction of inert gas molecules. Types of cubic arrangements (Figs. 2.5A to C):
• Simple cubic: It has 8 atoms positioned at the corners of
a cube, e.g. NaCl
• Body-centered cubic: It has one atom at the center of each
cube, e.g. Na, K, Ba, Li, Mo.
• Face-centered cubic: It has one atom at the center of
each face in addition to those at the corners, e.g. Au,
Ag, Cu, Pt, Pd.
Body-centered cubic and face-centered cubic are
important in dentistry. No real material has simple cubic
structure.

noncrYStALLInE or AMorPHouS
StructurES
Noncrystalline solids are those structures which have
Fig. 2.4: Fluctuating dipole in inert gas molecules where the charges randomly arranged molecules unlike the crystalline solids,
become positive and negative momentarily. e.g. certain waxes, glass, resin-based composites, glass

Chapter-02.indd 11 06-Jul-18 10:51:32 AM

 12 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

A B C
Figs. 2.5A to C: Diagram showing cubic arrangements: (A) Simple cubic; (B) Body-centered cubic; (C) Face-centered cubic.

ceramics, etc. The atoms in these structures have short

range attractive forces. They are called as supercooled liquids
or vitreous solids as they solidify without any arrangement
like molecules in a liquid state (Figs. 2.6A to C).
Properties of noncrystalline structures:
• Poor conductors of heat and electricity
• Do not have melting point
• These materials gradually soften on increasing the
temperature. The temperature at which this change
occurs is called the glass transition temperature (Tg) A B
and is characterized by a glassy structure. Figs. 2.6A and B: Atomic structural arrangements:
(A) Crystalline; (B) Noncrystalline.
• Below (Tg) the material becomes less flowly and has
greater resistance to shear deformation.
These materials when placed in fluid state are easy to
dIFFuSIon manipulate and shaped as desired. This state of material
Diffusion of molecules occurs not only in liquids and gases then transforms to solid state and then removed from the
but also in solids. Diffusion rates of various substances mouth (like impression material) or they perform their
depend on temperature and chemical potential gradient. function in the mouth (like cements). The value of viscosity
The higher the temperature, the greater will be the rate is proportional to the type of the fluid. The thicker fluids
of diffusion. Each alloy, crystal or compound is uniquely show greater viscosity as compared to thin fluids which
characterized by a diffusion coefficient. Diffusion coefficient have less viscosity.
of most of the crystalline solids at room temperature is very
low. Therefore, diffusion is very slow at room temperature. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
However, at higher temperature, properties of metal • Dental materials of different viscosities are selected
changes rapidly by atomic diffusion. based on their intended clinical use. Some materials
In noncrystalline solids, diffusion occurs more rapidly such as impression materials required to flow easily
and may occur at room temperature. Some metals such as and wet the surface whereas other materials are more
mercury and gallium melt even below room temperature. preferred in more viscous form such as restorative
materials
• Clinical success of a dental materials is dependent on its
VIScoSItY viscosity. For example, Dental cements and impression
The resistance of a fluid to flow is termed as viscosity. materials undergo liquid to solid transformation
Viscosity of some dental materials is important in oral cavity whereas Gypsum products undergo
to understand in order to manipulate materials to transformation from slurry state to solid extraorally.
get successful clinical results. Materials like cements,
impression materials, gypsum products, waxes, and resins
undergo liquid to solid transformation and the manner Rheology refers to study of deformation and flow
these products behave to stress is important to understand. characteristics of materials. Most of the liquids in motion

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 13
tend to resists imposed forces that cause them to move, Pseudoplastic behavior: The viscosity of such liquids
but usually at rest a liquid cannot support a shear stress. decrease with the increase of strain rate until it achieves
This resistance to fluid flow is proportional to the frictional a constant value. Such a fluid if spatulated faster or forced
forces within the liquid. This resistance to motion is called through a syringe like light body elastomer then it becomes
viscosity. Greater the viscosity of the liquid lesser is its flow. less viscous and more flowly. For example, monophasic
For example, honey flows slowly as compared to water elastomeric impression materials, endodontic cements.
or glycerin. Viscosity can be explained quantitatively in
CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Figure 2.7.
Elastomeric impression material when loaded into a
In this model, a liquid say honey is allowed to flow
tray, shows a higher viscosity, whereas the same material
between two plates. A shear force F is required to move the
when extruded under pressure through a syringe tip
upper plate over a fixed lower plate with a velocity of V over
shows more fluidity. This increase in flow with increased
the area A. This force F should be greater than the viscosity
shear rate is called as shear thinning.
of the liquid in order to produce movement. Therefore,
shear stress for honey can be calculated as:
Shear stress (τ) = F/A and Dilatant liquids: Such liquids demonstrate a higher viscosity
with the increase in strain rate, they become more rigid as
Similarly, Shear strain rate or rate of change of
the shear strain rate increases. This behavior is opposite to
deformation can be calculated as:
that of pseudoplastic liquids, e.g. fluid denture base resins.
(ε) = V/d, Denture base resins become more viscous when greater
where, pressure is applied.
V = velocity of liquid
d = distance between 2 plates Plastic behavior: These type of liquids behave as a rigid
material until a minimum amount of shear stress is applied
Viscosity of the liquid = shear stress/shear
to attain a constant viscosity. Such materials exhibit plastic
strain.
behavior. One classic example is of a ketchup bottle.
Measured in terms of centipoise or Mpa/sec.
To initiate flow of the ketchup, a sharp blow or thrust is
Factors influencing viscosity: required. Such liquid shows Bingham plastic behavior.
• Viscosity decreases on increasing temperature of non
setting liquids such as water Thixotropic Gels
• Viscosity increases with time and temperature of
chemically set materials such as cements Such type of materials or liquids show greater flow and
• Viscosity is dependent on shear rate, composition, filler reduced viscosity on repeated application of pressure. These
content, impurities etc. liquids flow easily under mechanical stress.
For example, dental plaster, prophylaxis paste, resin
cements, some impression materials, and fluoride gels.
Rheological Behavior of Different Liquids (Fig. 2.8)
Newtonian behavior: Such type of liquids are ideal liquids
where the shear stress is proportional to the strain rate.
On the stress-strain plot it is a straight line. It exhibits a
constant viscosity and has a constant slope. The viscosity of
Newtonian liquids is constant and is independent of shear
rate. For example, some dental cements and impression
materials.

Fig. 2.7: Viscosity of the liquid. Fig. 2.8: Rheological behavior of different types of liquid.

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 14 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE It occurs when a material is heated near its melting point
An impression material should be thixotropic as it flows and is subjected to constant applied load, resulting in an
out of the impression tray only when pressed against the increasing strain over a period of time.
dental tissues. Another term which is similar to creep is sag. It is a
permanent deformation which occurs in the long span fixed
Because of thixotropic nature of prophylaxis paste the partial denture under its own weight when it is heated at
material does not flow from the rubber cup until rubbed porcelain firing temperature. The internal strength of the metal
against the tooth surface. alloy to resist such deformation is called as sag resistance.
Fluoride gels exhibit thixotropic properties such as Likewise the term ‘flow’ is used to refer to the rheology
when these materials are loaded into the trays they do not of amorphous materials such as wax. Creep is distinguished
drip out. But when this tray is placed in the patient’s mouth from the flow by the extent of deformation and the rate at
and he is instructed to bite then the viscosity of the material which it occurs. The term creep implies to a relatively small
decreases and it flows interproximally and into deep pits deformation produced by a relatively large stress over a
and fissures of the teeth. longer period of time. Whereas flow implies to a greater
Viscoelastic Behavior deformation produced more rapidly with a smaller applied
stress or even under its own weight.
When a material undergoes full elastic recovery immediately
after removal of an applied load, it is called as elastic, but CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
if the recovery takes place slowly, or if there is a degree of • Creep can ultimately result in fracture failure of the
permanent deformation, then such materials are called as material
viscoelastic. • Value of creep is important in Dental amalgam to
The viscoelastic deformation is a combin­ation of elastic determine its fracture resistance at the edges
and plastic strain. Once the applied load is removed the • Creep can result in unacceptable fit of framework of
recovery is only of the elastic strain and not of the plastic fixed dental prosthesis fabricated with alloy of poor
strain. At the same time, the recovery is not instantaneous sag resistance.
and it takes place over a period of time.
For example, dental polymers and elastomeric
impression materials exhibit viscoelastic properties. coLor And coLor PErcEPtIon
Two properties which are important to understand using The primary goal in dentistry is to obtain esthetically
viscoelastic models are stress relaxation and creep. acceptable restorations. Today the challenge is to search
Stress Relaxation direct and indirect tooth colored material which can
fulfill this goal appropriately. For a restoration to simulate
It is a phenomenon which occurs when an applied stress on
a natural tooth or adjacent structure, it is important to
viscoelastic material is removed it tends to recover to come
understand the factors responsible for visual perception of
to its equilibrium state. Because of this there is movement
these structures (Fig. 2.9).
of atoms or molecules in the solid leading to its change in
shape. Such rearrangement of the atoms results in relief of The existence of color is only possible, if three conditions are
stress called as stress relaxation. satisfied:
Change of temperature influences stress relaxation of 1. Object or modifier since it interacts with the light source
the material. More the temperature greater is the rate of 2. Light source
relaxation. For example, a bent orthodontic wire tends to 3. Observer or preceptor.
come to its original state when heated to a high temperature. Light source gives light which is important condition
Similarly some amorphous materials which are in color perception. Light is an electromagnetic radiation
commonly used in dentistry such as modeling wax, which is readily detected by naked human eye. Only the
baseplate wax, resins, etc. can undergo stress relaxation visible spectrum with wavelengths between 400 nm (violet)
when manipulated and cooled leading to inaccuracy in the and 700 nm (red) are detected by the eye. The visibility of
fit of the prosthesis. an object is only possible if the light incident on it from
the light source is reflected. The reflected light is weaker in
magnitude than the incident light as the latter is selectively
crEEP absorbed. The signals for various colors are sent to human
It is defined as time-dependent plastic deformation of a body brain through receptors in the retina called as cones. These
under constant static load. cones are sensitive to red, blue and green color.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 15
Perception of color under light source (Figs. 2.10A to D)
The type of restorative material or object will determine the
appearance of that object. For excellent esthetic restorations
the interaction of light with the restorative material should
be similar to that of the tooth structure.
The light when it interacts with the object can:
• Reflect from its surface
• Can be absorbed
–– Can refract or
–– Can be transmitted, i.e can pass out unchanged.
This interaction determines opacity, translucency or
transparency of an object. If light falls on a rough tooth
restoration then it scatters in multiple directions as it is
reflected at many angles by the uneven surface.
Likewise, if light falls on a smooth tooth restoration it
gives a mirror like finish called as Specular reflectance. If
Fig. 2.9: Visible light spectrum.
light falls on a flat surface it gives a dull appearance called
as diffuse reflectance.
If very little light passes through the object then it is
Factors influencing the perception of color are: termed as opaque (i.e. most of it get absorbed or scattered).
• Intensity of light If object allows most of the light to pass through it then it is
• Age of patient called as translucent. Similarly, if an object allows 100% of
• Sex of patient light to pass through it without absorbing or scattering any
• Memory light then it is called as transparent material.
• Fatigue of color receptor
Enamel has more translucency than dentine. It has
• Cultural background.
refractive index of 1.65.
When there is low light level, rods are more dominant
than the cones and the perception of color is lost. But as
the brightness of the object becomes more intense, there Color Blindness
is a change in color. This phenomenon is called as Bezold– It is a condition in which a patient cannot differentiate red
Brucke effect. If an observer looks at the red object for a fairly from green color because of the lack of either green sensitive
long time and then looks at the white background then a or red sensitive cones. However, color blindness does not
green hue appears because of the receptor fatigue. During affect the shade selection of natural teeth.
shade selection if a clinician selects a shade against the
dark background then it is likely that the selected shade will
Metamerism
be shifted to complementary color of the background. For
example, for orange background the selected shade shifts This is a phenomenon in which objects are color matched in
towards blue–green whereas for blue background it shifts one type of light source but appear different under another
towards yellow. type of light source. Therefore, during color matching two or

A B A
C D
Figs. 2.10A to D: Appearance of Object when viewed under different light sources: (A) Mango viewed under broad daylight with white background;
(B) Mango viewed under broad daylight with green background; (C) Mango viewed under halogen light of the dental chair; (D) The same mango
when viewed under LED light of the Dental Chair.

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 16 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

A B
Figs. 2.11A and B: Shade guide for shade selection of teeth.

more type of light sources should be used. One of this light Opalescence
source should be natural light source to get better results. This optical property is seen in translucent materials such
as tooth enamel giving a milky white appearance when
Shade Matching light passes through them. Such materials allow only
Natural daylight is the best source of light for shade longer wavelength to pass through them and reflect shorter
selection. Although other sources such as incandescent wavelength giving them bluish white appearance (opalescent).
and fluorescent lamps can be used for shade selection using But at the junction of enamel and dentin longer wavelengths
shade guide (Figs. 2.11A and B). are also reflected which gives an orangish glaze. This process is
called as counter - opalescence. Both these phenomenon are
reproduced in ceramics and composite restorations.
General Principles of Shade Matching
• Shade selection should be done under good lighting Three Dimensions of Color
condition, natural light being the best source There are three variables which are measured to describe
• Tooth to be matched should be cleaned color namely, hue, value and chroma.
• Teeth to be matched are viewed at eye level 1. Hues can be of two types: Primary and secondary. Primary
• Bright clothing should be draped and lip cosmetics hues are those colors which cannot be formed on
should be removed before shade matching mixing other colors such as red, blue and green whereas
• If unable to accurately match, select the shade with secondary hues are those colors formed by mixing two
lower chroma and higher value primary colors such as yellow, cyan and magenta.
• Shade matching should be done quickly to avoid eye 2. Value: It is the darkness or lightness of a color. Natural
fatigue factor. In order to rest eyes focus on gray-blue teeth have high value. On a scale of 1–10 where 1 =
surface immediately before comparison black and 10 = white. The value of most of the patients
• Shade matching should be compared under varying will be in the range 6–8. This lightness can be measured
conditions like wet lips and dry lips independent of the color hue.
• Shade matching should be done with wet tooth surface 3. Chroma: It measures the intensity of the color or degree
because dry surface results in increase in value. of saturation of the hue. The term ‘chroma’ was coined by
Munsell in 1905. Chroma is measured on the scale of 1 to 10
Fluorescence where 10 = saturated and 1= least saturated. Eg. yellow color
of the sunflower is more saturated than that of lemon. Usually
The energy that the tooth absorbs is converted into light natural teeth are low in chroma ranging between 1 and 3.
with longer wavelength such that the tooth itself becomes
a light source. This phenomenon of absorption of radiation Color Measuring Systems
of a particular wavelength and its re-emission as a radiation • Munsell system (Visual system) (Fig. 2.12): This
of a longer wavelength is called as fluorescence. system is based on the visual technique. It is based

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 17
Chromaticity coordinates. The value (black to white) is
denoted as L, and chroma is denoted as red (+a), green
(-a), yellow (+b), and blue (-b).

tHErMAL conductIVItY
It is the rate at which heat passes through a material of given
thickness when the temperature difference is 1°C (Table 2.1).
SI Unit is j/sec/cm2 or cal/sec/cm2.
All metals are good conductors of heat and electricity
whereas most nonmetals, polymers, ceramics, liquids and
gases are good insulators.
Table 2.1: Thermal conductivities of common dental materials.
Material Cal/sec/cm2 j/sec/cm2
Fig. 2.12: Munsell color system.
Gold 0.710 2.97
Dental amalgam 0.055 0.23
on a well-defined series of color tabs. The three color
Silver 1.006 4.21
parameters namely, hue, value, chroma are presented
in three dimensional system. Gypsum products 0.0031 0.013
–– The hue of 10 colors is painted with continuous Zinc phosphate cement 0.0028 0.012
change on the circular strip with 0, 2.5, 5, 7.5 Resin composite 0.0026 0.011
gradations for each color. The 10 colors are
Dental ceramic 0.0025 0.010
represented by P, PB, B, BG, G, GY, Y, YR, R, and RP
Tooth enamel 0.0022 0.0092
–– The value of color is presented by 10 tabs with
varying brightness from lowest to highest darkness Tooth dentin 0.0015 0.0063
along the vertical axial cylinder Zinc oxide eugenol cement 0.0011 0.0046
–– The chroma of color is presented along the Acrylic resin 0.0005 0.0021
radial axis with increasing saturation from /2, /4,
/6,……………/16 for each hue and values. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
• CIE L a, b system (spectrophotometric system) (Fig. More heat is conducted through metals and alloys than
2.13): This is instrument-based system. It involves through polymer such as acrylic resin.
systematic matching of the tristimuli values (R,G,B)
of the light reflected from the surface, and comparing High value of conductivity for dental amalgam indicates
them with those of the standard gas filled light source that this material could not provide satisfactory insulation
and the average natural daylight. The CIE denotes of the pulp. Therefore, Cavity base of cement is used such
Commission Internationale de I’Eclairage. The ratio of as zinc phosphate which has a lower thermal conductivity
each tristimulus value of color to their sum is called as value and it insulates the pulp from thermal insult.

Fig. 2.13: CIE L a, b system.

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 18 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials
Ideally, impression materials should be good
conductors of heat such that thermoplastic materials can
coEFFIcIEntS oF tHErMAL
be manipulated uniformly and sets uniformly to minimize EXPAnSIon
the distortion due to relaxation of the internal stresses. But It is defined as the change in length per unit length of a
all impression materials are not good conductors of heat material for a change of 1°C temperature (Table 2.3). The
and therefore, adequate precautions should be taken at unit is expressed as ppm/K.
the time of use.
The common denture-base material PMMA is very poor Table 2.3: Linear coefficient of thermal expansion of common
conductor of heat. The patient often complains of not so dental materials.
pleasant taste of the food. Material Coefficient of thermal expansion 10-6/°C
Inlay wax 350–450
tHErMAL dIFFuSIVItY Acrylic resin 76

It is a measure of the rate at which a body with a nonuni- Composite resin 14–50
form temperature reaches a state of thermal equilibrium Zinc oxide eugenol 35
(Table 2.2). cement
Restorative materials should have low thermal Dental amalgam 22–28
conductivities and low thermal diffusivities. Although Gold 14.4
materials like direct filling gold, amalgam have high thermal Dental ceramic 12
conductivity and diffusivity. Therefore, cavity base is
Tooth structure 11.4
required to protect the pulp from thermal insult.
Tooth enamel and dentin are effective thermal Glass ionomer cement 10.2–11.4
insulators. If the remaining thickness of dentin during cavity
preparation is too thin, i.e less than 0.5 – 1 mm then it should CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
be protected with appropriate insulating base material to In the maxillary complete denture, base covers most
prevent thermal injury to the pulp. of the hard palate. As denture base resins are poor
The thermal conductivity and thermal diffusivity of conductor of heat, denture patient often complains of
different cementing materials are comparable to the natural reduced sensation of cold and hot food during eating.
tooth structure in contrast to the metallic tooth restorative
materials. • Inlay waxes have high expansion coefficient that is
Thermal diffusivity (D) why it is highly susceptible to temperature changes.
D = k/cpρ An accurate wax pattern that fits on a prepared tooth
where, contracts significantly when it is removed from the tooth
k = Thermal conductivity or from a die in a hot area and then stored in a cooler
Cp = Temperature-dependent specific heat area. This dimensional change is transferred to a cast
ρ = Density restoration which is made from that wax pattern.
Units = m2/sec or cm2/sec. • Ideally all impression materials should have coefficient
of thermal expansion (CTE) as 0 to reduce dimensional
changes of impression materials from thermal changes.
Although none of the material currently available
Table 2.2: Thermal diffusivity of common dental materials. has CTE as 0. Therefore, adequate precautions and
Material Thermal diffusivity 10-4 cm2/sec
modifications are used during its manipulation to get
desired result.
Gold 11800
• CTE of restorative material should be as close to that of
Dental amalgam 960 enamel and dentine as possible. Greater the difference
Composite resin 19–73 between the CTE greater will be chances of microleakage
Zinc phosphate cement 30 and sensitivity to the tooth.
Glass ionomer cement 22
• The soldering or brazing material should have CTE same
as that of substrate to avoid separation when cooled.
Tooth dentin 18–26
• The ceramometal bond is enhanced by mismatching
Tooth enamel 47 the coefficient of thermal expansion.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 19

tArnISH And corroSIon Electrochemical or Wet Corrosion

This type of corrosion involves an oxidation- reduction
Tarnish reaction in the presence of an electrolyte. It consists of two
Tarnish is surface discoloration of the metal surface or slight different materials with the presence of water or other fluid
loss of surface finish or luster due to the formation of chemical electrolytes. It forms an electrochemical corrosion cells
film of sulfide, oxide or chloride. It is a reversible process. which involves flow of free electrons and the electrolyte
provides the pathway for the transport of these electrons
Corrosion (Fig. 2.14).
An electrochemical cell consists of anode, cathode, an
Corrosion is a process of actual, active deterioration of a electrolyte and an ammeter. The anode is the surface where
metal due to the chemical or electrochemical reaction with the positive ions are formed. This metal surface corrodes
its environment. It is an irreversible process. since there is loss of electrons. This reaction is called the
For example, rusting of iron nail in the presence of water oxidation reaction.
and oxygen. A0 → A+ + e-
At the cathode a reaction must occur that consumes the
Causes of Tarnish and Corrosion free electrons produced at the anode. The reactions at the
• Tarnish is caused by soft and hard deposits such as cathode are called as reduction reaction. Hence, the anode
plaque and calculus loses electrons and corrodes.
• Stains or discoloration arises from pigment- producing A+ + e- → A0
bacteria, drugs-containing chemicals such as iron and The electrolytic solution provides the electrons to the
mercury cathode and helps in transferring the corrosion products
• Corrosion is caused by actual deterioration of metal by to the anode. The external circuit completes the path
reaction with its environment through which the electrons from the anode are conducted
• Action of moisture, acid or alkaline solutions and certain to the cathode. The electrical potential difference or the
chemicals electromotive force (EMF) is the voltage measured by this
• Water, oxygen and chloride ions present in the saliva difference and is of clinical importance. For example, if two
contributes to the corrosion attack. dissimilar metal restorations contact they may generate
physiological response in the form of pain.
Corrosion of iron can be prevented by: If electrochemical corrosion needs to be a continuous
• Coating the surface with oil or paint so that air and water process the loss of electrons at the anode (oxidation
cannot reach it reaction) should be balanced by the gain of electrons at
• Coating the surface with zinc the cathode (reduction reaction). The reduction reaction
• Electroplating the surface (cathodic) is found to be a primary driving force which
• Alloying the surface with chromium to form a passivating brings about electrochemical reaction. If this is controlled
layer which is chemically resistant to corrosion. This the corrosion process can be minimized or eliminated.
process is called as passivation.
Classification of Corrosion
• Chemical or dry corrosion
• Electrochemical or wet corrosion.

Chemical or Dry Corrosion

Dry corrosion involves a direct combination of metallic and
nonmetallic elements. This type is exemplified by oxidation,
halogenation or sulfurization. There is no electrolyte or water
involved in this process therefore the name dry corrosion.
For example, formation of Ag2S in dental alloys containing
silver, oxidation of alloy particles in dental amalgam. Fig. 2.14: Wet or electrochemical corrosion.

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 20 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

Table 2.4: Electromotive force (EMF) series of metals.

Metal Electrode potential
Gold +1.5
Silver +0.80
Copper +0.47
Hydrogen 0.00
Tin –0.14
Nickel –0.23
Iron –0.44
Chromium –0.56
Zinc –0.76
Aluminum –1.7
Sodium –2.71

Electromotive Series
This series is the classification of elements in the order
of their dissolution tendencies in water based on their
equilibrium values of electrode potential. If two metals
are immersed in an electrolyte and are connected by an
Fig. 2.15: Galvanic shock.
electrical conductor, an electric couple is formed. The metal
that gives up the electrons and ionizes is called the anode. teeth are in direct physical contact. The saliva acts as an
Hydrogen is used as the standard electrode to which other electrolyte and the hard and soft tissues constitute the
metals are compared. It is given a value of zero (Table 2.4). external circuit.
Similarly different metals have different electrode potential A current can also exist in single isolated metallic
(V) measured in volts or millivolts based on different restorations because of difference in electrical potential
electronic structure. If the electrode potential of the metal between two electrolytes namely, saliva and the tissue
is more positive, it has less tendency to corrode whereas if fluids. The tissue fluids include the dentinal fluids, soft
a metal has electrode potential in negative it shows greater tissue fluid, or blood which help in completing the external
tendency to corrode. For e.g. Noble metals have very high circuit. This current generated is of much lesser intensity
electrode potential because its outer valence orbit has eight than that with contacting dissimilar metallic restorations.
electrons which are stable and do not easily lose or gain The magnitude of this current reduces with time as the
electrons. Due to this they are highly resistant to corrosion. restoration becomes older but can remain indefinitely.

Types of Electrolytic Corrosion Heterogeneous Compositions

This type of corrosion is based on heterogeneous
Galvanic Corrosion
composition of the surfaces of the dental alloy.
This type of corrosion occurs when two dissimilar metals Example of this type is eutectic and peritectic alloys.
are in direct physical contact with each other. When an alloy containing eutectic is immersed in an
For example, when gold restoration comes in contact electrolyte the metallic grains with the lower potential are
with an amalgam restoration in the mouth, saliva on both attacked and corrosion results.
restorations act as electrolyte and the difference in potential Cored structures are more susceptible to corrosion
between the two restorations causes sudden short circuit than homogenized structure. This is due to difference in
resulting in a sharp pain. This sharp pain experienced by the composition between different elements having different
patient is called as galvanic shock. If a restoration is coated electrode potential. Although even homogenized structure
with a varnish it can eliminate galvanic shock (Fig. 2.15). is susceptible to corrosion because of the difference in
An electric circuit exists even when the teeth with structure between the grains and their boundaries.
dissimilar restorations are not in contact due to the In metal or alloy, the grain boundaries may act as anodes
difference in electrical potential or EMF. The current and the interior of the grain as the cathode. Impurities in
generated is less in intensity as compared to when the any alloy enhance corrosion.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 21
CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE oxide. However, chromium coated metal structure are
• Corrosion resistance of multiphase alloys is generally susceptible for pitting and stress corrosion. Patients
less than that of a single phase solid solution because should be instructed not to use bleaching agents or other
when two phase alloy is immersed in an electrolyte, abrasives to clean partial dentures
the lamellae with lower electrode potential acts as • Increasing the noble metal content increases the
anode and corrodes resistance to corrosion because their EMF is positive
• Impurities in alloys increase corrosion and they are with regard to any common reduction reactions found
typically segregated at the grain boundaries in the oral cavity
• In single phase solid solution any core structure • Polishing metallic restoration to high luster reduces
has less corrosion resistance than homogenized corrosion.
solid solution because of the difference in electrode Dissimilar metal restoration should be avoided
potential • Use of high mercury containing alloy should be avoided
• In homogenized solid solution the grain boundaries • Titanium and its alloys produces a passivating layer of
are susceptible to corrosion because these grain titanium oxide which makes it highly biocompatible
boundaries acts as anode and the grain interiors acts and corrosion resistant. However corrosion can occur
as cathode due to formation of corrosion products at the implant
• Solder joints between the dental alloy can corrode due abutment interface or within implant body. This can
to difference in composition of the alloy and the solder lead to eventual failure because of stress corrosion and
• Pure metals corrodes at much slower rates than the microorganisms such as bacteria.
alloys because they do not contain any significant
quantity of impurities. MEcHAnIcAL ProPErtIES
Mechanical properties are those properties that measure
Stress Corrosion the resistance of the material to deformation or fracture
under an applied load. These properties are expressed in
A metal which has been stressed by cold working becomes units of stress and strain. They are important to understand
more reactive at the site of maximum stress. If stressed and predict the behavior of the material under applied load.
and unstressed metal are in contact in an electrolyte, the
stressed metal will become the anode of a galvanic cell and
Stress
will corrode.
Stress can be defined as force acting per unit area within a
Concentration Cell Corrosion body subjected to external pressure or force.
If an external force is applied to a body, an internal force
Crevice corrosion occurs whenever there is variation in the equal in magnitude but opposite in direction is set-up in the
electrolytes or in the composition of the given electrolytes body. The stress produced in the body is equal to the applied
within the system. force divided by the area over which it acts.
Differences in oxygen tension in between parts of the For example, if a wire of 0.000002 m2 is stretched with
same restoration cause corrosion of the restoration. Greater 200 N force. Then the stress will be Stress = Force/Area =
corrosion occurs in the part of the restoration having lower 200/0.000002.
concentration of oxygen. The unit of stress is ‘Pascal’. Depending on the nature
of the applied stress and the shape of the object, stresses
Protection Against Corrosion are of three types namely, tensile, compressive and shear.

Passivation Strain
It is a process by which the surface of the metal or alloy
It is the change in length (Δl) per unit original length (Lo).
are treated to produce a thin stable inert oxide layer thus,
Strain (ε) = Δl/Lo
making it corrosion resistant. This process is also called as
passive corrosion conditioning. The application of an external force to a body results in
a change in dimension of that body.
If the wire is 0.1 m long, and if it stretches to
Methods of Passivation
0.001 m under the load, the strain (ε) will be:
• Electroplating surface of iron, steel and other alloys ε = Δl/lo = 0.001 m/0.1 m = 0.0001 m/m
with chromium to form a passivating layer of chromium = 0.0001 = 0.01%.

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 22 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

Types of Strain (Fig. 2.16) • Flexural (bending) stress: This type of stress can produce
all the three types of stresses in a structure. In a flexural
Elastic Strain stress mostly the structure fractures. The tensile and
It is reversible type of strain in which the object fully recovers compressive stresses are the principal axial stresses
its original shape when the applied force is removed. whereas as shear stress is combination of tensile and
compressive components. It is, however, the tensile stress
component which causes fracture of the material.
Plastic Strain
Flexural stresses can be produced in the following situations:
It is an irreversible type of strain in which object undergoes
• By subjecting a structure such as a fixed partial denture
plastic deformation and it does not recovers its original shape
to three point loading, whereby the end points are fixed
when the force is removed.
and a force is applied between these end points.
• By subjecting a cantilevered bridge that is supported at
Types of Stress (Fig. 2.17) one end only with a load at the unsupported portion.
• Tensile stress: The tensile (pulling type) force produces • When a patient bites into an object say an apple, forces
tensile stress. This type of force tends to pull the object are applied at an angle to the long-axis of the anterior
from both sides. It is associated with tensile strain. teeth thereby creating flexural stresses within the teeth.
For example, a sticky candy is used to remove a crown
when the patient is asked to open the mouth with the Stress-Strain Relationship
help of tensile stress (Fig. 2.18).
• Compressive stress: Compressive type of force produces Stress and strain are closely related and may be seen as an
compressive stress. This type of force tends to push the example of cause and effect.
object from both sides or shortens it. Compressive stress A plot of the corresponding values of stress and strain
is accompanied by compressive strain. is referred to as a stress-strain curve. Such a curve may be
• Shear stress: Shear type of force tends to slide the top obtained in compression, tension, or shear.
portion of the object over the bottom portion. The For example, stress-strain curve for stainless steel
internal resistance to such force is called as shear stress. orthodontic wire (Fig. 2.20).
This type of stress is also always accompanied with The shape and magnitude of the stress-strain curve are
shear strain. important in the selection of dental materials.
For example, orthodontic bracket is removed from
the tooth enamel by applying force along the surface of Proportional Limit
enamel by a sharp instrument to initiate shear stress failure It is the greatest stress that a material will sustain without
(Fig. 2.19). deviating from the linear proportionality of stress to strain.

Fig. 2.16: Diagram to illustrate types of strain on application of force.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 23

Fig. 2.17: Types of stresses.

Fig. 2.20: Stress-strain curve of orthodontic steel wire subjected

under tension.

Till the proportional limit, the material will obey the

Hooke’s law, i.e. the elastic stress is directly proportional
to the elastic strain. On a stress-strain graph it appears as
a straight line. If a material is stressed to a value below the
proportional limit it will show reversible or elastic strain.
On removal of this stress the material will return to its
original shape. Likewise if the material is stressed beyond
the proportional limit it will show plastic strain represented
by a nonlinear curve on the stress- strain graph (Fig. 2.21).
Fig. 2.18: Removal of crown by applying pulling type of force
(Tensile stress).
Elastic Limit
It is the maximum stress that a material can withstand
without permanent deformation.
It describes the elastic behavior of the material.
Although the term elastic limit can be used interchangeably
with the proportional limit as they describe the same stress.

Elastic Modulus
It refers to the relative rigidity or stiffness of a material. It is
measured by the slope of elastic region of the stress-strain
graph. It has a constant value which is represented by the
ratio of elastic stress to the elastic strain. For a given stress
if the strain is less, then the elastic modulus is higher. It
is expressed in units of force per unit area, i.e. GN/m 2
(giganewtons per square meter) or GPa (gigapascals).
Elastic modulus of the tensile test specimen is calculated
as:
Stress P/A
Fig. 2.19: Debonding of orthodontic bracket by applying shear force. E = Strain = Δl/l
o

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 24 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

Fig. 2.21: Stress-strain diagram.

Fig. 2.23: Diagram to show resilience and toughness in a
stress-strain graph.

For example, an impression material should have high

flexibility so that they can be removed easily from the severe
undercuts.

Resilience
The internal energy of material is increased if the interatomic
distance between the atoms is increased. If the stress
applied is within the proportional limit then this energy is
called as resilience. The term resilience is associated
with ‘springiness’. It refers to the amount of energy absorbed
when an object is stressed to its proportional limit.
In the Figure 2.23, the area measuring the elastic region
is referred as resilience whereas the total area measuring
the elastic and plastic strains denotes the toughness of an
Fig. 2.22: Stress-strain diagram of enamel and dentin. object.
For example, elastomeric impression material, resilient
liners.
For example, among the elastomeric impression
material, polyether impression material has the highest CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
rigidity or elastic modulus. • During orthodontic treatment, the movement of teeth
Elastic modulus of dental enamel is three times more is brought about by the energy stored in the wire which
than that of dentin. Enamel is more brittle and stiff whereas is released slowly. The energy stored and released
dentin is more flexible and tougher (Fig. 2.22). subsequently indicates the potential springiness of
Orthodontic wire with greater elastic modulus will be the wire
more difficult to bend than wire of same thickness and size • Denture liners are resilient materials which are applied
of lower elastic modulus. on the hard denture base. These materials are capable
of absorbing considerable energy without being
Flexibility permanently distorted
• Elastomeric impression material should not be poured
Flexibility is defined as the flexural strain which occurs when
immediately because it has high value of resilience.
the material is stressed to its proportional limit.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 25
Poisson’s Ratio force of mastication is more than this stress then material
will fracture and may not produce the desired results.
Poisson’s ratio is a ratio between the lateral and axial strain
within the elastic limit. It is required to monitor the way in
which the stress changes with the alterations in specimen
Toughness
shape. It will give the ratio between strain occurring at 90° It is the internal ability of an object to withstand stresses and
to the direction of the applied force and strain occurring in strains without fracturing or breaking.
the direction of force. In other words, it is the total amount of elastic and
The strain may be recoverable, non-recoverable, plastic deformation energy which is required to fracture or
and partially recoverable or the recovery may be time- break an object. The total area under stress-strain graph
dependent. The extent of recovery and/or rate of recovery gives an indication of toughness. Many prostheses are
is a function of the elastic properties of the material. subjected to intermittent stresses over a long period of time.
When a material is subjected to axial loading in tension This results in formation of a microcrack, possibly due to
or compression, there is simultaneous generation of axial stress concentration at the surface of the prosthesis. This
and lateral strain. Under tensile loading, the material crack slowly propagates until fracture occurs.
elongates with the reduction in diameter or cross-section
of the material, likewise under compressive loading the Fatigue Strength
material shortens and there is increase in diameter or cross
section of the material. When an object is subjected to repeated stress over a period
The Poisson’s ratio of material represents that under say of time, it leads to initiation of crack and subsequently to
tensile loading the reduction in cross section of the material propagation of crack until a sudden, unexpected fracture
will be proportional to the elongation of the material in the occurs. This type of fracture occurs because of fatigue. The
elastic range. This process will continue till the material internal resistance of the material to such a fracture is called
fractures in tension. fatigue strength.
The fracture of the material due to fatigue is called
Poisson’s ratio of most of the dental materials is
fatigue failure. This property is one of the most important
around 0.3.
properties which predicts clinical longevity of the material.
Fatigue in materials can be prevented by proper designing
Strength Properties and selection of appropriate material.
Yield Strength
It is also called as proof stress. It is the amount of stress at
Impact Strength
which an object exhibits a specific amount of plastic strain. It is defined as the energy required to fracture a material
It is used in cases where it is not possible to determine under an impact force.
proportional limit with accuracy. The term “impact” denotes the reaction of the stationary
Yield strength or proof stress is often a stress at which object when it collides with the moving object.
a small amount of plastic strain in the range of 0.1–0.2%
occurs. This small value of plastic strain of 0.1% or 0.2% is It can be measured by:
called as percent offset. The value of yield strength for 0.2% • Charpy type impact tester: This type of tester is
offset is greater than that of 0.1%. commonly used to measure the impact strength. It
Likewise if yield strengths of two materials are to be has a pendulum which when released swings down
compared using similar conditions then same offset should to fracture a rod which is supported at both the ends.
be applied to get true values. In case of brittle materials, The comparison is made between the length of the
there is no plastic strain and therefore, determining yield spring before and after the impact to determine the
strength for such materials at 0.1% or 0.2% offset will not be loss of energy
possible. It should be noted that the value of yield strength • Izod impact tester: This is another type of tester which is
is always more than the proportional limit. This property used to determine the impact strength of a material. In
is important in evaluating a material as it gives the stress this device the object to be tested is clamped vertically
at which permanent deformation of material begins. If the at one end and the impact is made near this end.

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 26 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE Fracture Toughness

• A blow by a fist or an object say during road traffic
It is the resistance of brittle materials to the catastrophic
accident to the lower jaw relates to an impact force
propagation of flaws under an applied stress. It is also called
• In an impact situation the external forces and the
as critical stress intensity.
resulting stresses change rapidly. In such situation the
It is represented by KIc in units of stress times the square
static mechanical property such as proportional limit
root of crack length or MPa.m1/2 or MN.m-3/2.
will not be useful in predicting the amount of deformity
• When a moving object with known amount of kinetic
energy collides with stationary object it can either Brittleness
permanently deform this object or it can store the The materials which are brittle, fractures at or below the
energy of collision in an elastic manner depending on proportional limit, i.e. such materials are unable to sustain
the resilience of that object any plastic strain. For example, ceramics, amalgam, gypsum
• An object with high tensile strength and low elastic material, composites, cements and some base metal alloys
modulus is more resistant to impact forces than (Fig. 2.24). The failure of these materials are usually
an object with low tensile strength and high elastic attributed to the presence of flaws and low tensile strengths.
modulus. Brittleness of the material is relative inability of the
material to sustain plastic deformation before fracture of
The elastic modulus and tensile strengths of some of the material occurs. These materials in short fractures at or near
dental materials are given below (Table 2.5): proportional limit, i.e. they have little or no sustainability
of plastic strain.
Table 2.5: Elastic modulus and tensile strength of dental materials. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Type of material Elastic modulus Tensile strength • Brittle materials are not weak materials as most of
Dental porcelain 40 GPa 50–100 MPa the dental restorative materials are brittle in nature.
For example, Zirconia crowns have high tensile
Alumina ceramic 350–418 GPa 120 MPa
strength but 0% elongation. A cobalt chromium partial
Resin based composites 17 GPa 30–90 MPa denture have tensile strength of 870 MPa but percent
Poly (methamethacrylate) 3.5 GPa 60 MPa elongation of only 1.5%
Dental amalgam 21 GPa 27–55 MPa • Since brittle materials such as amalgam, composites,
ceramics have very low or no ductility (0% elongation
potential) they have very low burnishability.
Ultimate Strength
The ultimate strength is the maximum stress that the
Young’s Modulus
material can withstand before it fractures under tension or
compression. Modulus of elasticity (Young’s modulus or elastic modulus)
The ultimate strength is calculated by dividing the represents stiffness or rigidity of the material within the
maximum load in tension or compression by the original elastic range. Elastic modulus represents the ratio of the
cross–sectional area of the test specimen. It is used in
dentistry to determine the thickness or cross-section of the
material required to bear the masticatory forces without
fracture.

Fracture Strength
Fracture strength or fracture stress is the value of stress at
which the material fractures. Flaws or defects in a material
greatly influences the fracture strength of the material. For
example, Identical ceramic ingots can have varying strength
depending on the amount of flaws (defects) in them.
The fracture strength is inversely proportional to the
square root of the flaw depth within the surface. Fig. 2.24: Stress-strain curve for brittle and ductile materials.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 27
elastic stress to the elastic strain. It follows, that the lower A shear modulus (G) of a material is calculated when a
the strain for a given stress, the greater the value of the material is subjected to shear stress and is accompanied by
modulus. shear strain. The shear modulus is calculated by formula –
Modulus of elasticity (E) = Stress (σ)/Strain (ε). G = E/ 2 (1 + ν) = E/2 (1 + 0.3) = 0.38E
Elastic modulus is measured in MPa or GPa. It is
dependent on the composition of the material. Ductility
On a stress-strain curve, the linear region of the curve
determines the elastic modulus. A steep slope, giving a It is the ability of the material to sustain a large permanent
high modulus value, indicates a rigid material, whilst a deformation under a tensile load before it fractures.
shallow slope, giving a low modulus value, indicates flexible Ductility of a material is its ability to be drawn into
material. wire under tensile load. It represents the workability of
Elastic modulus of enamel is much higher than dentin. the material in the mouth. The ease of burnishability of
As enamel has greater rigidity, it is more brittle than dentin the margins of the casting is represented by ductility of
which is more flexible and tougher. Because of its greater the casting alloy, e.g. a metal is considered as ductile if it is
resilience dentin is capable of withstanding greater plastic readily drawn into long thin wires.
deformation under compressive loading (Table 2.6). Gold is the most ductile material followed by silver,
For example, if wire (a) of same shape and size as wire platinum, iron, nickel, copper, aluminum, zinc and tin.
(b) is more difficult to bend then the other wire. Then wire
(a) has greater modulus of elasticity than wire (b). Measurement of Ductility
Since elastic modulus is constant it is therefore Methods of measuring ductility of a material are as follows:
independent of the amount of elastic or plastic stress • Percent elongation after fracture
induced in a material. Also, it is independent of the ductility • Reduction in area of tensile test specimens
or strength of a material as it is measured in the straight • Maximum number of bends performed in a cold bend
line of stress-strain plot. A material with high modulus of test.
elasticity can have high or low strength value. The value of
modulus of elasticity can be measured by both compression Percent Elongation after Fracture
as well as tensile tests. Among them the most common method used to determine
ductility is a method in which the length of the wire is
compared between the increased length under tension after
Dynamic Young’s Modulus fracture to that of original length before fracture. For this two
There are two methods of measuring elastic modulus, marks are made on the wire and the measured distance is
i.e. static and dynamic. In the dynamic method the called as gauge length. This gauge length is usually 51mm.
velocity of sound travelling through solid is measured by This length of wire is pulled under tensile load till it fracture.
ultrasonic longitudinal and transverse wave trasducers and After fracture, both the fractured ends are joined and the
receivers. Velocity of sound and density of material helps gauge length is again measured. The ratio of increased
in determining the dynamic elastic modulus and Poisson’s length after fracture to the original gauge length is measured
ratio of the material. The values obtained from this method as percent elongation of that material. The value gives the
are slightly higher than those obtained from static methods quantitative value of ductility of the material.
but are acceptable. Reduction in Area of Tensile Test Dpecimens
In this method reduction in cross-sectional area of the
Table 2.6: Elastic modulus of certain dental materials. metal wire under tensile load until it is fractured to that
Dental material Elastic modulus (GPa) of the original cross-sectional area of the wire is helpful in
Co- Cr alloy 218 determining the ductility of the wire.
Tooth enamel 84 Maximum Number of Bends in Cold Bend Test
Feldspathic porcelain 69 In this method the testing specimen (wire) is clamped in a
Dental amalgam 28 vise and is bent around the mandrel of a specific radius. The
wire is bent around the mandrel until it fractures. Greater
Tooth dentin 18
the number of bend more is the ductility of a material. The
Composite resin 16 first bend is made at 90° from vertical to horizontal and then
Acrylic denture base resins 2.65 subsequently 180° bends are given.

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 28 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

Malleability Classification of Hardness Tests

It is the ability of a material to withstand permanent • Macrohardness test—Brinell and Rockwell test:
deformation without rupturing under compression such as Macrohardness tests employ loads much greater than
hammering or rolling into thin sheets. 9.8 N to determine the hardness of the material
The property of malleability increases with rise of • Microhardness test—Knoop and Vickers test :
temperature. Microhardness test employ load less than 9.8 N to
The most ductile and malleable metal is gold which is produce indentations to a depth of less than 19 µm.
followed by silver. Following gold and silver, platinum is
most ductile and copper is most malleable material.
Both ductility and malleability of the material reduces Methods of Measuring Surface Hardness
by increasing the slip resistance.
• Mohs scratch test
Methods to increase slip resistance are: • Indentation methods
• Work hardening –– Brinell hardness test
• Age hardening heat treatment –– Rockwell hardness test
• Precipitation heat treatment –– Vickers hardness test
• Solution hardening. –– Knoop hardness test
• Penetration: Penetration methods: shore A and Barcol
CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE test.
• Marginal adaptation of the restorations is improved by Mohs Scratch Tests
increasing the ductility and malleability of the material In this test, hardness of various raw metals is compared by
• Since gold is the most ductile and malleable metal in scratching one metal by another. This method is inaccurate
pure form. Direct filling gold in form of gold foil can and could not be used for many dental materials.
be used as restorative material in very thin sections to Indentation Methods
allow excellent compaction • Brinell hardness test: This is one of the earliest tests
• Thin platinum foils are used for fabricating porcelain used to measure the hardness of the metal. This test
jacket crowns was introduced by JA Brinell, a Swedish engineer in
• Orthodontic wires are manufactured from cast ingots 1900. The indenter in this test is in the form of hardened
into wires of varying thickness steel ball of diameter 1.6 mm which is used to penetrate
• Thin tin foils are used as separating medium in the the surface of the material to be tested with a force of
denture fabrication procedure. 123 N for 30 seconds. The diameter of the indentation is
measured after removing the indenter. This diameter of
the indentation measures the hardness of the material
Hardness (Fig. 2.25).
–– Hardness value: The specified load is divided by
Resistance offered by the surface of a material to scratching,
the area of the indentation. The quotient gives the
abrasion, indentation or penetrations.
The value of hardness is often referred to as the hardness
number, depending on the method used for the evaluation.
High values of hardness number indicate a hard material
and vice versa. Hardness of a material can influence
compressive strength, proportional limit and ductility of
a material.
There are various surface hardness tests which are useful
in understanding the utility of the material. Most of these
hardness tests measure the material surface’s ability to resist
indentation or penetration by an object such as diamond
point or steel under a specified load. Fig. 2.25: Brinell hardness testing.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 29
Brinell hardness number (BHN). The unit of BHN is
kg/mm2. Larger the indentation, smaller the number
and softer the material likewise for harder materials
smaller will be the indentation and larger will be the
number. Brinell hardness number for certain dental
casting alloys are given below in Table 2.7.

Table 2.7: Brinell hardness number for different casting alloys.

Material BHN (kg/mm2)
Direct filling gold 46–69
Type I gold alloy 45 Fig. 2.26: Rockwell hardness testing.

Type II gold alloy 95

Type III gold alloy 120
Type IV gold alloy 220
Au–Ag–Cu alloy 252

–– Uses:
◊ To determine hardness of the metals and dental
casting alloys
◊ It is related to proportional limit and ultimate
tensile strength of dental gold alloys
◊ Because of its simplicity it is used as index of
properties involving more complex methods
◊ This method cannot be used for Brittle materials
like ceramics, gypsum products.
• Rockwell’s hardness test: It was developed by Stanley Fig. 2.27: Vickers hardness testing.
P. Rockwell, as the rapid method for determining
hardness of the material. This type of test is similar to the
Brinell test where a conical diamond point or steel ball ◊ Indentation may disappear immediately after
is used as an indenter. In this test, depth of penetration removal of load.
rather than the diameter is measured by a dial gauge on • Vickers hardness test: This test was devised in the United
the instrument. The indenter cones or balls are available Kingdom in 1925 and was formally called as Diamond
in different diameters with different load applications. pyramid hardness test. The method of indentation
A superficial Rockwell method is used to test plastic resembles the Brinell test except the indenter used is
material in dentistry. in the shape of square pyramid diamond. The Vickers
This method uses a large diameter ball (12.7 mm) with hardness number (VHN) is calculated by dividing load
a load of 30 kg for 10 minutes before measuring the with the area of indentation. The measurement is based
depth of penetration. The test is done first by applying on values of the lengths of diagonal (sides of the diamond)
a preload of 3 kg (Fig. 2.26). of the indenter after taking an average (Fig. 2.27).
–– Uses: It is used to determine hardness of viscoelastic –– Uses
materials. ◊ Used to measure the hardness of brittle material
–– Advantages: ◊ Hardness of dental casting gold
◊ Hardness value obtained directly ◊ Hardness of tooth structure.
◊ Simple to use. To compare the VHN and BHN, the following relationship
–– Disadvantages: is used.
◊ Preload is required VHN = 1.05 × BHN
◊ Greater time is needed VHN values for some of the materials are given in Table 2.8.

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 30 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

Table 2.8: Vickers hardness number for different dental materials.

Material VHN
Tooth enamel 350
Tooth dentin 60
Dental amalgam 120
Dental ceramics 450
Gold alloys 55–250
Acrylic resins 20
Cobalt chromium alloys 420

• Knoop hardness test (Fig. 2.28): Knoop hardness test was

developed as a microindentation method. The indenter
used for this test is a diamond with a pyramidal shape.
–– Hardness value: A desired load is applied at the
diamond indenting tool and the length of the
diagonal of the resulting indentation is measured.
The length of the largest diagonal is measured. Once
the indentation is made and the indenter is removed,
there is elastic recovery of the projected impression
along the shorter diagonal. Knoop hardness number
(KHN) is measured as the ratio of the load applied
to the area of the indentation. The units for KHN is
kg/mm2 (Fig. 2.29).
–– Advantages:
◊ Wide range of materials can be tested for
hardness by varying the load
◊ Can be used with very light load application. Fig. 2.29: Knoop hardness number of different materials.
–– Disadvantages:
◊ Highly polished and flat test specimens are –– Hardness number: It is a spring-loaded needle with a
required diameter of 1 mm that is pressed against the surface
◊ Greater time needed to test the specimen. to be tested. If the needle does not at all press into
–– Uses: Both soft and hard materials can be tested by the surface than the reading of Barcol tester is 100. As
this method. the indenter penetrated into the surface the reading
of the scale is decreased.
Knoop hardness numbers of various dental materials
are given in Table 2.9.

Table 2.9: Knoop hardness numbers of various dental materials

Materials KHN
Tooth enamel 343
Tooth dentin 68
Cementum 40
Silicon carbide abrasive 2480
Feldspathic porcelain 460
Co-Cr partial denture 391
Denture acrylic 21
Fig. 2.28: Knoop hardness testing.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 31
• Barcol hardness test: This test is used to measure the –– Uses:
depth of the cure of the resin composites. ◊ To test the hardness of soft denture liners
–– Uses: ◊ Maxillofacial elastomers
◊ Depth of cure of the resin composites ◊ Elastomeric impression materials
◊ Depth of cure of acrylic denture resin. ◊ Mouth protectors.
• Shore a hardness test: This type of tester is used to
measure the hardness of rubber and soft plastics. It SuMMArY
consists of a blunt indenter of 0.8 mm in diameter which Physical and mechanical properties are the backbone of
tapers to a cylinder of 1.6 mm. applied dental material science. The failure potential of
If the indenter completely penetrates the specimen the dental prosthesis under applied force is related to the
than the value obtained on scale is 0 and if it does not physical and mechanical properties of the material used.
penetrate at all then the reading is 100. Since elastomers Thorough knowledge of these properties is useful because
are viscoelastic in nature an accurate reading is difficult it helps us in best understanding and application of the
to obtain with this method. materials in different clinical situations.

Test Yourself

Essay Questions 2. The most stable primary bonds are:

A. Have random forms
1. Discuss the optical properties which influences shade B. Have regular crystalline structures
selection. C. Are amorphous
2. Define tarnish and corrosion. Discuss wet corrosion in D. Have mixed physical structure
detail. 3. If a material is permanently deformed it has exceeded:
3. Describe various physical and chemical properties A. Ultimate tensile strength
which influences restorative materials. B. Stiffness
4. What is flow? Describe importance of wettability in C. Proportional limit
restorative dentistry. D. Toughness
5. Enumerate various mechanical properties. Describe 4. Thixotropic gels:
importance of each in dental material science. A. Have poor viscosity
6. Differentiate between ductility and malleability. B. Flow under mechanical forces
7. Define hardness. Describe various hardness tests in C. Flow at higher temperatures
detail. D. Flow at lower temperatures
Short Notes 5. Brinnell hardness number (BHN) of dental gold alloy
is directly related to:
1. Galvanic corrosion. A. Tensile strength
2. Thixotrophic and pseudoplastic behavior. B. Modulus of elasticity
3. Creep and its types. C. Percent elongation
4. Impact strength. D. Resilience
5. Resilience and toughness. 6. The point at which the plastic strain develops:
6. Pitting and stress corrosion. A. Elastic limit, modulus of elasticity, breaking strength
7. Metamerism and fluorescence. B. Elastic limit, yield strength, proportional limit
8. Fatigue strength. C. Yield strength, breaking strength, toughness
D. Toughness, rigidity, resiliency
Multiple Choice Questions 7. In comparison to amorphous material the crystalline
1. Modulus of elasticity is defined as: materials have:
A. Stress/strain ratio A. No space lattice
B. Stiffness/sponginess B. Less stability
C. Force/area C. Well-defined melting point
D. Sponginess/stiffness ratio D. All of the following

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 32 Section 1: General Properties of Dental Materials

8. If a material recovers and do not plastically gets 17. Elastic modulus of material refers to its:
deformed then it has good: A. Hardness
A. Toughness B. Toughness
B. Elasticity C. Percent elongation
C. Malleability D. Stiffness
D. Ductility 18. The ability of the elastomeric impression material to be
9. Materials used for the restoration of tooth enamel needs removed from the teeth without getting permanently
high: deformed is due to:
A. Opacity A. Maximum flexibility
B. Chroma B. Percent elongation
c. Vitality C. Elastic modulus
D. Translucency D. Ductility
10. Microleakage can cause: 19. For adherence of pit and fissure sealant to the tooth
A. Recurrent caries enamel the surface should be:
B. Marginal staining A. Low in surface energy
C. Postoperative sensitivity B. Wettable
D. All the above C. Smooth and non-porous
11. Area under complete stress and strain curve gives: D. Covered with saliva
A. Modulus of elasticity 20. Hardness determines the ability of the material to:
B. Toughness A. Deform
C. Resilience B. Break
D. Proportional limit C. Get easily compressed
12. Which of the following uses diamond as the reference D. Resist wear
material:
A. Moh’s scale Answers
B. Knoop hardness number
C. Vicker hardness number 1. A 2. B 3. A 4. B
D. Brinell hardness number 5. A 6. B 7. C 8. B
13. Ductility of material is expressed in terms of: 9. D 10. D 11. B 12. A
A. Force per unit area 13. B 14. C 15. D 16. B
B. Percentage elongation 17. D 18. A 19. B 20. D
C. Surface hardness
D. Stress/strain ratio BIBLIoGrAPHY
14. Marginal gap between composite restorations and tooth 1. Academy of denture prosthetics: Glossary of prosthodontics
could be due to: terms, 8th edn. J Prosthet Dent. 1999;81:41-126.
A. Differences in thermal conductivity 2. Antonson SA, Anusavice KJ. Contrast ratio of veneering and
B. Pulpal pressure core ceramics as a function of thickness. Int J Proshtodont
C. Differences in thermal expansion coefficient 2001;14:316-20.
D. Inadequate adhesion 3. Anusavice KJ. Phillip’s Science of Dental Materials, 11th
15. When amalgam restoration contacts with gold onlay a edition. Elsevier, St Louis, Missouri; 2003. pp. 21-101.
galvanic cell is established in which the amalgam: 4. Bergman M, Ginstrup O, Nilner K. Potential and polarization
measurements in vivo of oral galvanism. Scand J Dent Res.
A. Oxidizes
1978;86:135.
B. Releases metallic ions 5. Braden M, Clarke RL. Dielectric properties of zinc oxide
C. Serves as the anode eugenol type cements. J Dent Res. 1974;53:1263.
D. All of the above 6. Braden M, Clark RL. Viscoelastic properties of Elastic
16. Which type of bonding in a material associates with impression. J Dent Res. 1972;51:1525-8.
high thermal and electrical conductivities: 7. Braden M, Wilon AD. Relation between stress relaxation
A. Ionic bond and viscoelastic properties of dental materials. J Dent.
B. Metallic bond 1982;10:181-6.
C. Covalent bond 8. Calamia JR, Wolff MS, Simonsen RJ. Dental clinics of North
America: Successful esthetic and Cosmetic dentistry for the
D. van der Waals
Modern Dental Practice, Elsevier Saunders Inc., 2007.

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 CHAPTER 2: Structure of Matter and Properties of Dental Materials 33
9. Callister WD, Rethwisch DG. Materials Science and 22. Mumford JM. Electrolytic action in the mouth and its
Engineering : An Introduction, Hoboken, NJ, 2009, John Wiley relationship to pain. J Dent Res. 1957;36:632.
& Sons. 23. O’Brien WJ, Nelson D, Lorey RE. The assessment of
10. Chaturvedi TP. An overview of the corrosion aspect of chroma sensitivity to porcelain pigments. J Prosthet Dent.
dental implants (Titanium and its Alloys). Ind J Dent Res. 1983;49:63-6.
2009;20:91-8. 24. O’Brien WJ. Dental materials and Their Selection, 3rd edn.
11. Chu S, Devigus A, Mieleszko A. The Fundamentals of Color: Quintessence Publishing Co Inc, Carol Stream; 2002.
Shade Matching and Communication in Esthetic Dentistry, 25. Parker RM. Shade matching for indirect restorations in the
Carol Stream, IL, 2004, Quintessence. esthetic zone. J Cosmet Dent. 2008;23:98-104.
12. Craig RG, Peyton FA. Thermal conductivity of tooth structure, 26. Powers JM, Dennison JB, Koran A. Color stability of restorative
dental cements and amalgam. J Dent Res. 1961;40:411. resins under accelerated aging. J Dent Res. 1978;57:964.
13. Craig RG. Restorative Dental Materials, 8th edition. St Louis: 27. Prem P, Filip K, Moustafa MN. Fracture strength and fatigue
CV Mosby Co.; 1989. resistance of dental resin based composites. Dent Mater.
14. Glantz P. On wettability and adhesiveness. Odont Rev. 2009;25:956-9.
1969;20:1. 28. Sarkar NK, Fuys RA Jr, Stanford JW. The chloride corrosion of
15. Johnston WM, Kao EC. Assessment of appearance by low gold casting alloys. J Dent Res. 1979;58:568-75.
visual observation and clinical colorimetry. J Dent Res. 29. Sturdevant JR, Sturdevant CM, Taylor DF, Bayne SC. The 8
1989;68:819-22. year clinical performance of 15 low gold casting alloys. Dent
16. McCabe JF, Wilson HJ. The use of differential scanning Mater. 1987;3:347-52.
calorimetry for the evaluation of Dental Materials. II. Denture 30. Upadhyay D, Panchal MA, Dbey RS, et al. Corrosion of alloys
base materials. J Oral Rehabil. 1980;7:235. used in dentistry: A review. Mater Sci Eng A. 2006;432;1-11.
17. McCane JF. Applied Dental Materials, 8th edition. Canada CV 31. Walker RS, Wade AG, Iazzetti G, et al. Galvanic interaction
Elsevier Science; 2003. between gold and amalgam: effect of zinc, time and surface
18. Mc Lean JW. The Science and Art of Dental Ceramics. The treatments. J Am Dent Assoc. 2003;134:1463-7.
Nature of Dental Ceramics and their Clinical Use, Vol. 1,CA, 32. Yeh CL, Miyagawa Y, Powers JM. Optical properties of
1979, Quintessence. composites of selected shades. J Dent Res. 1982;61:797.
19. Metathananda IM, Parker S, Patel MP. Relationship between 33. Yeh CL, Powers JM, Miyagawa Y. Color of selected shades
hardness of elastomeric impression material and Young’s of composites by reflection spectrophotometry. J Dent Res.
modulus. Dent Mater. 1996;12:74-82. 1982;61:1176.
20. Meyer JM, Reclaru L. Electro chemical determination of the 34. Yuan JC – C, Brewer JD, Monaco EA, et al. Defining a natural
corrosion resistance of noble casting alloys. J Mater Sci: Mater tooth color space based on a 3 dimensional shade system. J
Med. 1995;6:534-40. Prosthet Dent. 2007;98:110-9.
21. Miller LL. Shade matching. J Esthet Dent. 1993;5:143.

Chapter-02.indd 33 06-Jul-18 10:51:39 AM

 Chapter

Biocompatibility of Dental Materials

3
ADA Specification No. 41; ISO Specification No. 7405

Chapter Outline
ƒƒ Biocompatibility Challenges to Oral and Maxillofacial ƒƒ Correlation Between In Vitro, Animal and Usage Tests
Materials ƒƒ Biocompatibility Issues in Dentistry
ƒƒ Factors Influencing Biocompatibility of a Material ƒƒ Clinical Tips for Using Dental Materials Safely and
ƒƒ Adverse Effects due to Exposure of Dental Materials Effectively
ƒƒ Role of Ada in Biocompatibility Testing ƒƒ Guidelines to Minimize Chemical Exposure in the Dental
ƒƒ Measuring of Biocompatibility Clinic
ƒƒ Types of Tests ƒƒ Clinical Tips to Manage Aerosols in Dental Clinic
ƒƒ Types of Test Programs for Biocompatibility Testing

‘I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that don’t work’.
—Thomas Edison

material or device is subjected to exposure to saliva,

Introduction food items, bacteria and other products. Exposure to
Since the prehistoric times, human beings have tried to environment such as extreme of temperature changes, pH
use a number of materials and devices in the oral cavity in and chemical composition of the food items demands severe
order to improve function and esthetics. Initially, healthcare requirements of material to perform. The temperature in
providers experimented with lots of material and devices the oral cavity can vary between 0°C and 90°C which may
to repair or replace teeth. But it was realized that some alter the mechanical properties of the material or subject
materials were more successful than other materials when to thermal expansion which may lead to biocompatibility
used in contact with the oral tissues. Many researchers in issues. The pH of the oral cavity can vary depending on the
dental field found that some of the materials have greater oral status or medical condition of the patient like bulimia
favorable tissue response than other materials. Thus, or patient with problem of gastric regurgitation or patient
concept of biocompatibility was studied with greater with high caries index. Such patient can present with special
interest. biocompatibility challenge that is not a normal physiologic
condition.
Definition After caries removal when restorative material is placed
into the prepared cavity, the chemical components may
Biocompatibility is defined as an ability of the material migrate and cause irritation to the pulp tissues. This can be
to elicit an appropriate biological response in a given prevented by proper isolation of the restorative material by
application in the body. using cavity liners.
According to Murray et al (2007), biocom­patibility is an Biocompatibility depends on the host condition,
ability of a restorative material to induce an appropriate and material properties and where it is used. The interaction
advantageous host response during its intended clinical between the host and the material should not elicit any
usage. harmful effect on the host. The types of possible interactions
taking place are:
BIOCOMPATIBILITY CHALLENGES • Between material and oral tissues
TO ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL • Between material and pulp through the dentinal tubules
• Between the material and the periodontium, and
MATERIALS • Between the material and the periapical region.
The oral environment is complex and varied and provides The interaction between the host and the materials
a challenge to the use of various dental materials. A dental is influenced by the properties of material, its duration

Chapter-03.indd 34 06-Jul-18 10:34:12 AM

 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
 We passed by the beautiful brook Kedron, flung down from the utmost
heights of Willey, between banks mottled with colors. Then, high up on our
right, two airy water-falls seemed to hang suspended from the summit of
Webster. These, called respectively the Silver Cascade, and the Flume
withdrew the attention from every other object, until a sharp turn to the
right brought the overhanging precipice of Mount Willard full upon us. This
enormous mass of granite, rising seven hundred feet above the road, stands
in the very jaws of the gorge, which it commands from end to end.

THE CASCADES, MOUNT

WEBSTER.

Here the railway seems fairly stopped; but with a graceful sweep it
eludes the mountain, and glides around its massive shoulder, giving, as it
does so, a hand to the high-road, which comes straggling up the sharp
ascent. The river, now shrunken to a rivulet, is finally lost to view beneath
heaped-up blocks of granite, which the infuriated old mountain has hurled
down upon it. It is heard painfully gurgling under the ruins, like a victim
crushed, and dying by inches.
Now and here we entered a close, dark defile hewn down between cliffs,
ascending on the right in regular terraces, on the left in ruptured masses.
These terraces were fringed at the top with tapering evergreens, and
displayed gaudy tufts of maple and mountain-ash on their cool gray. Those
on the right are furthermore decorated with natural sculptures, indicated by
sign-boards, which the curious investigate profitably or unprofitably,
according to their fertility of imagination.
For a few rods this narrow cleft continues; then, on a sudden, the rocks
which lift themselves on either side shut together. An enormous mass has
tumbled from its ancient location on the left side, and, taking a position
within twenty feet of the opposite precipice, forms the natural gate of the
Notch, through which a way was made for the common road with great
labor, through which the river frays a passage, but where no one would
imagine there was room for either. The railway has made a breach for itself
through the solid rock, greatly diminishing the native grandeur of the place.
All three emerge from the shadow and gloom of the pass into the cheerful
sunshine of a little prairie, at the extremity of which are seen the white
walls of a hotel.
The whole route we had traversed is full of contrasts, full of surprises;
but this sudden transition was the most picturesque, the most startling of all.
We seemed to have reached the end of the world.

IX.

CRAWFORD’S.

The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts

Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose.
Shakspeare.
A LL who have passed much time at the mountains have seen the
elephant—near the gate of the Notch.
Though it is only from Nature’s chisel, the elephant is an honest
one, and readily admitted into the category of things curious or marvellous
constantly displayed for our inspection. Standing on the piazza of the hotel,
the enormous forehead and trunk seem just emerging from the shaggy
woods near the entrance to the pass. And the gray of the granite strengthens
the illusion still more. From the Elephant’s Head, a title suggestive of the
near vicinity of a public-house, there is a fine view down the Notch for
those who cannot ascend Mount Willard.
The Crawford House, being built at the highest point of the pass, nearly
two thousand feet above the sea, is not merely a hotel—it is a water-shed.
The roof divides the rain falling upon it into two streams, flowing on one
side into the Saco, on the other into the Ammonoosuc. Here the sun rises
over the Willey range, and sets behind Mount Clinton. The north side of the
piazza enables you to look over the forests into the valley of the
Ammonoosuc, where the view is closed by the chain dividing this basin
from that of Israel’s River. But we are not yet ready to conduct the reader
into this Promised Land.
My window overlooked a grassy plain of perhaps half a mile, the view
being closed by the Gate of the Notch, now disfigured by snow-sheds built
for the protection of the railway. The massive, full-rounded bulk of Webster
rose above, the forests of Willard tumbled down into the ragged fissure.
Half-way between the hotel and the Gate, over-borne by the big shadow of
Mount Clinton, extends the pretty lakelet which is the fountain-head of the
Saco. Beyond the lake, and at the left, is where the old Notch House stood.
This lake was once a beaver-pond, and this plain a boggy meadow, through
which a road of corduroy and sods conducted the early traveller. The
highway and railway run amicably side by side, dividing the little vale in
two.
 ELEPHANT’S HEAD, WINTER.

This pass, which was certainly known to the Indians, was, in 1771,
rediscovered by Timothy Nash, a hunter, who was persuaded by Benjamin
Sawyer, another hunter, to admit him to an equal share in the discovery. In
1773 Nash and Sawyer received a grant of 2184 acres, skirting the
mountains on the west, as a reward. With the prodigality characteristic of
their class, the hunters squandered their large acquisition in a little time
after it was granted. Both the Crawford and Fabyan hotels stand upon their
tract.
Of many excursions which this secluded retreat offers, that to the summit
of Mount Washington, by the bridle-path opened in 1840 by Thomas J.
Crawford, and that to the top of Mount Willard, are the principal. The route
to the first begins opposite to the hotel, at the left; the latter turns from the
glen a quarter of a mile below, on the right. Supposing Mount Washington a
cathedral set on an eminence, you are here on the summit of the eminence,
with one foot on the immense staircase of the cathedral.
Our resolve to ascend by the bridle-path was already formed, and we
regarded the climb up Mount Willard as indispensable. As for the cascades,
which lulled us to sleep, who shall describe them? We could not lift our
eyes to the heights above without seeing one or more fluttering in the play
of the breeze, and making rainbows in pure diversion. President Dwight, in
his “Travels,” has no more eloquent passage than that describing the Flume
Cascade. How many since have thrown down pen or pencil in sheer despair
of reproducing, by words or pigments, the aerial lightness, the joyous
freedom; above all, the exuberant, unquenchable vitality that characterize
mountain water-falls! Down the Notch is a masterpiece, hidden from the
eye of the passer-by, called Ripley Falls, which fairly revels in its charming
seclusion. Only a short walk from the hotel, by a woodland path, there is
another, Beecher’s Cascade, whose capricious leaps and playful
somersaults, all the while volubly chattering to itself, like a child alone with
its playthings, fascinates us, as sky, water, and fire charm the eyes of an
infant. It is always tumbling down, and as often leaping to its feet to resume
its frolicsome gambols, with no loss of sprightliness or sign of weariness
that we can detect. Only a lover may sing the praises of these mountain
cascades falling from the skies:
“The torrent is the soul of the valley. Not only is it the Providence or the
scourge, often both at once, but it gives to it a physiognomy; it gladdens or
saddens it; it lends it a voice; it communicates life to it. A valley without its
torrent is only a hole.”
They give the name of Idlewild to the romantic sylvan retreat, reached
by a winding path, diverging near the hotel, on the left. I visited it in
company with Mr. Atwater, whose taste and enthusiasm for the work have
converted the natural disorder of the mountain side into a trysting-place fit
for elves and fairies; but where one encounters ladies in elegant toilets,
enjoying a quiet stroll among the fern-draped rocks. Some fine vistas of the
valley mountains have been opened through the woods—beautiful little bits
of blue, framed in illuminated foliage. One notes approvingly the revival of
an olden taste in the cutting and shaping of trees into rustic chairs,
stairways, and arbors.
After a day like ours, the great fires and admirable order of the hotel
were grateful indeed. If it is true that the way to man’s heart lies through his
stomach, the cherry-lipped waiter-girl, who whispered her seductive tale in
my too-willing ear at supper, made a veritable conquest. My compliments
to her, notwithstanding the penalty paid for lingering too long over the
griddle-cakes.
The autumn nights being cool, it was something curious to see the parlor
doors every now and then thrown wide open, to admit a man who came
trundling in on a wheelbarrow a monster log fit for the celebration of Yule-
tide. The city guest, accustomed to the economy of wood at home, because
it is dear, looks on this prodigality first with consternation, and finally with
admiration. When the big log is deposited on the blazing hearth amid fusees
of sparks, the easy-chairs again close around the fireplace a charmed circle;
and while the buzz of conversation goes on, and the faces are illuminated
by the ruddy glow, the wood snaps, and hisses, and spits as if it had life and
sense of feeling. The men talk in drowsy undertones; the ladies, watching
the chimney-soot catch fire and redden, point out to each other the old
grandame’s pictures of “folks coming home from meeting.” This scene is
the counterpart of a warm summer evening on the piazza—both typical of
unrestrained, luxurious indolence. How many pictures have appeared in that
old fireplace! and what experiences its embers revived! Water shows us
only our own faces in their proper mask—nothing more, nothing less; but
fire, the element of the supernatural, is able, so at least we believe, to unfold
the future as easily as it turns our eyes into the past. If only we could read!
When we arose in the morning, what was our astonishment to see the
surrounding mountains white with snow. Like one smitten with sudden
terror, they had grown gray in a night. Striking, indeed, was the
transformation from yesterday’s pomp; beautiful the contrast between the
dark green below and the dead white of the upper zones. Thickly incrusted
with hoar-frost, the stiffened foliage of the pines and firs gave those trees
the unwonted appearance of bursting into blossom. Over all a dull and
brooding sky shed its cold, wan light upon the glen, forbidding all thought
of attacking the high summits, at least for this day.
Dismissing this, therefore, as impracticable, we nevertheless determined
on ascending Mount Willard—an easy thing to do, considering you have
only to follow a good carriage-road for two miles and a half to reach the
precipices overlooking the Saco Valley.
Startling, indeed, by its sublimity was the spectacle that rewarded our
trouble a thousand-fold. Still, the sensations partook more of wonder than
admiration—much more. The unpractised eye is so utterly confounded by
the immensity of this awful chasm of the Notch, yawning in all its extent
and all its grandeur far down beneath, that, powerless to grasp the fulness
and the vastness thus suddenly encountered, it stupidly stares into those far-
retreating depths. The scene really seems too tremendous for flesh and
blood to comprehend. For an instant, while standing on the brink of the
sheer precipice, which here suddenly drops seven or eight hundred feet, my
head swam and my knees trembled.
First came the idea that I was
looking down into the dry bed of some
primeval cataract, whose mighty rush
and roar the imagination summoned
again from the tomb of ages, and
whose echo was in the cascades, hung
like two white arms on the black and
hairy breast of the adjacent mountain.
This idea carries us luck to the
Deluge, of which science pretends to
have found proofs in the basin of the
Notch. What am I saying? to the
Deluge! it transports us to the
Beginning itself, when “Darkness was
upon the face of the deep. And the
Spirit of God moved upon the face of LOOKING DOWN THE NOTCH.
the waters.”
You see the immense walls of Mount Willey on one side, and of Webster
on the other, rushing downward thousands of feet, and meeting in one
magnificently imposing sweep at their bases. This vast natural inverted
archway has the heavens for a roof. The eye roves from the shaggy head of
one mountain to the shattered cornices of the other. One is terrible, the other
forbidding. The naked precipices of Willey, furrowed by avalanches, still
show where the fatal slide of 1826 crushed its way down into the valley,
traversing a mile in only a few moments. Far down in the distance you see
the Willey hamlet and its bright clearing. You see the Saco’s silver.
Such, imperfectly, are the more salient features of this immense cavity of
the Notch, three miles long, two thousand feet deep, rounded as if by art,
and as full of suggestions as a ripe melon of seeds. I recall few natural
wonders so difficult to get away from, or that haunt you so perpetually.
Like ivy on storied and crumbling towers, so high up the cadaverous
cliffs of Willey the hardy fir-tree feels its way, insinuating its long roots in
every fissure where a little mould has crept, but mounting always like the
most intrepid of climbers. Upon the other side, the massed and plumed
forest advances boldly up the sharp declivity of Webster; but in mid-ascent
is met and ploughed in long, thin lines by cataracts of stones, poured down
upon it from the summit. Only a few straggling bushes succeed in mounting
higher; and far up, upon the very edge of the crumbling parapet, one
solitary cedar tottered. The thought of imminent destruction prevailed over
every other. Indeed, it seemed as if one touch would precipitate the whole
mass of earth, stones, and trees into the vale beneath.
Between these high, receding walls, which draw widely apart at the
outlet of the pass, mountains rise, range upon range. Over the flattened
Nancy summits, Chocorua lifts his crested head once more into view. We
pass in review the summits massed between, which on this morning were of
a deep blue-black, and stood vigorously forth from a sad and boding sky.
From the ledges of Mount Willard, Washington and the peaks between
are visible in a clear day. This morning they were muffled in clouds, which
a strong upper current of air began slowly to disperse. We, therefore,
secured a good position, and waited patiently for the unveiling.
Little by little the clouds shook themselves free from the mountain, and
began a slow, measured movement toward the Ammonoosuc Valley. As they
were drawn out thinner and thinner, like fleeces, by invisible hands, we
began to be conscious of some luminous object behind them, and all at
once, through a rift, there burst upon the sight the grand mass of
Washington, all resplendent in silvery whiteness. From moment to moment
the trooping clouds, as if pausing to pay homage to the illustrious recluse,
encompassed it about. Then moving on, the endless procession again and
again disclosed the snowy crest, shining out in unshrouded effulgence. To
look was to be wonder-struck—to be dumb.
As the clouds unrolled more and more their snowy billows, other and
lower summits rose above, as on that memorable morn after the Deluge,
where they appeared like islands of crystal floating in a sea of silvery vapor.
We gazed for an hour upon this unearthly display, which derived unique
splendor from fitful sun-rays shot through the folds of surrounding clouds,
then drawing off, and again darting unawares upon the stainless white of the
summits. It was a dream of the celestial spheres to see the great dome, one
moment glittering like beaten silver, another shining with the dull lustre of a
gigantic opal.
 I have since made several journeys through the Notch by the railway.
The effect of the scenery, joined with some sense of peril in the minds of
the timid, is very marked. Old travellers find a new and veritable sensation
of excitement; while new ones forget fatigue, drop the novels they have
been reading, maintaining a state of breathless suspense and admiration
until the train vanishes out at the rocky portal, after an ascent of nearly six
hundred feet in two miles.
In effect, the road is a most striking expression of the maxim, “L’audace,
et toujours de l’audace,” as applied to modern engineering skill. From
Bemis’s to Crawford’s its way is literally carved out of the side of the
mountain. But if the engineers have stolen a march upon it, the thought,
how easily the mountain could shake off this puny, clinging thing,
prevailing over every other, announces that the mountain is still the master.
There are no two experiences which the traveller retains so long or so
vividly as this journey through the great Notch, and this survey from the
ledges of Mount Willard, which is so admirably placed to command it. To
my mind, the position of this mountain suggests the doubt whether nature
did not make a mistake here. Was not the splitting of the mountains an after-
thought?

X.

THE ASCENT FROM CRAWFORD’S.

On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds.

With a diadem of snow.—Manfred.

A T five in the morning I was aroused by a loud rap at the door. In an

instant I had jumped out of bed, ran to the window, and peered out. It
was still dark; but the heavens were bright with stars, so bright that
there was light in the room. Now or never was our opportunity. Not a
moment was to be lost.
I began a vigorous reveille upon the window-pane. George half opened
one sleepy eye, and asked if the house was on fire. The colonel pretended
not to have heard.
 “Up, sluggards!” I exclaimed; “the mountain is ours!”
“Do you know who first tempted man to go up into a high mountain?”
growled George.
“Satan!” whined a smothered voice from beneath the bedclothes.
The case evidently was one which demanded heroic treatment. In an
instant I whipped off the bedclothes; in another I received two violent blows
full in the chest, which compelled me to give ground. The pillows were
followed by the bolster, which I parried with a chair, the bolster by a sortie
of the garrison in puris naturalibus. For a few seconds the mélée was
furious, the air thick with flying missiles. By a common instinct we drew
apart, with the intention of renewing the combat, when we heard quick
blows upon the partition at the left, and scared voices from the chamber at
the right demanding what was the matter. George dropped his pillow, and
articulated in a broken voice, “Malediction! I am awake.”
“Come, gentlemen,” I urged, “if you are sufficiently diverted, dress
yourselves, and let us be off. At the present moment you remind me of the
half-armed warriors on the pediment of the Parthenon.”
“I take it you mean the frieze,” said George, with chattering teeth.
The colonel was on all-fours, picking up the different articles of his
wardrobe from the four corners of the chamber. “My stocking,” said he,
groping among the furniture.
“What do you call this?” inquired George, fishing the dripping article
from the water-pitcher.
“Eh! where the deuce is my watch?” redemanded the colonel, still
seeking.
“Perhaps this is yours?” George again suggested, drawing it, with mock
dexterity, as he had seen Hermann do, from a boot-leg.
We quickly threw on our clothes, but at the moment of starting George
put his hand into his breast and made a frightful grimace.
“What is it?” we both asked in one breath. “What is the matter?”
“My pocket-book is gone.”
After five minutes’ ransacking in every hole and corner of the room, and
after shaking the bedclothes carefully, all to no purpose, it was discovered
that George and myself had exchanged coats. We then went down-stairs
into the great hall, where a solitary jet of gas burnt blue, and a sleepy
watchman dozed on a settee. The morning air was more than chilly: it was
“a nipping and an eager air.” There were two or three futile attempts at
pleasantry, but hunger, darkness, and the cold quickly silenced them. A man
is never himself when roused at five in the morning. No matter how
desirable the excursion may have looked the night before, turning out of a
warm bed to hurry on your clothes by candle-light, and to take the road
fasting, strips it of all glamour.
Day broke disclosing a clear sky, up which the rosy tints of sunrise were
streaming. The last star trembled in the zone of dusky blue above the grand
old hills, like a tear-drop on the eyelids of the night. The warm color flowed
over the frosted heads of the pines, mantling their ghastly white with the
warm glow of reviving life. Then the eye fell upon the lower forests, still
wrapped in deep shadows, the tiny lake, the boats, and, lastly, the oval
plain, or vestibule of the Notch, above which ascended the shaggy sides of
Mount Willard, and the retreating outline of Mount Webster. The little plain
was white with hoar-frost; the frozen fountain dripped slowly into its basin,
like a penitent telling its beads.
After a hasty breakfast, despatched with mountain appetites, behold us at
half-past six entering the forest in Indian file! My companions again found
their accustomed gayety, and soon the solemn old woods echoed with mirth.
Our hopes were as high as the mountain itself.
A détour as far as Gibbs’s Falls cost a good half-hour in recovering the
bridle-path; but we were at length en route, myself at the head, George
behind. The colonel carried the flask, and marched in the middle. He was
considered the most incorruptible of the three; but this precaution was
deemed an indispensable safeguard, should he, in a moment of
forgetfulness, carry the flask to his lips.
The side of Mount Clinton, which we were now climbing, is very steep.
The name of bridle-path, which they give the long gully we had entered, is
a snare for pedestrians, but a greater delusion for cavaliers. The rains, the
melting snows, have so channelled it as to leave little besides interlaced
roots of old trees and loose bowlders in its bed. Higher up it is nothing but
the bare course of a mountain torrent.
The long rain had thoroughly soaked the earth, rendering it miry and
slippery to the feet; the heavy air, compounded of a thousand odors,
hindered, rather than assisted, the free play of the lungs. Our progress was
slow, our breathing quick and labored. Every leaf trembled with rain-drops,
so that the flight of a startled bird overhead sprinkled us with fine spray.
Finches chattered in the tree-tops, squirrels scolded us sharply from fallen
logs.
Looking up was like looking through some glorious, illuminated window
—the changed foliage seemed to have fixed the gorgeous hues of the
sunset. Through its crimson and gold, violet and green, patches of blue sky
greeted us with fair promise for the day. Looking ahead, the path zigzagged
among ascending trees, plunged into the sombre depths above our heads,
and was lost. One impression that I received may be, yet I doubt, common
to others. On either side of me the forest seemed all in motion; the dusky
trunks striding silently and stealthily by, moving when we moved, halting
when we halted. The greenwood was as full of illusions as the human heart.
I can never repress a certain fear in a forest, and to-day this seemed peopled
with sprites, gnomes, and fauns. Once or twice a crow rose lazily from the
top of a dead pine, and flew croaking away; but we thought not of omens or
auguries, and pushed gayly on up the sharp ascent.
It was a wild woodland walk, with few glimpses out of the forest. For
about a mile we steered toward the sun, climbing one of the long braces of
the mountain. Stopping near here, at a spring deliciously pure and cold, we
soon turned toward the north. As we advanced up the mountain the sun
began to gild the tree-tops, and stray beams to play at hide-and-seek among
the black trunks. We saw dells of Arcadian loveliness, and we heard the
noise of rivulets, trickling in their depths, that we did not see.
Wh-r-r-r! rose a startled partridge, directly in our path, bringing us to a
full stop. Another and another took flight.
“Gad!” muttered the colonel, wiping his forehead, “I was dreaming of
old times; I declare I thought the mountain had got our range, and was
shelling us.”
“Salmis of partridge; sauce aux champignons,” said George, licking his
lips, and looking wistfully after the birds. You see, one spoke from the head,
the other from the stomach.
Half an hour’s steady tramp brought us to an abandoned camp, where
travellers formerly passed the night. A long stretch of corduroy road, and
we were in the region of resinous trees. Here it was like going up rickety
stairs, the mossed and sodden logs affording only a treacherous foothold.
Evidence that we were nearing the summit was on all sides. Patches of
snow covered the ground and were lodged among the branches. From these
little runlets made their way into the path, as the most convenient channel.
There were many dead pines, having their curiously distorted limbs hung
with the long gray lichen called “old man’s beard.” Multitudes of great
trees, prostrated by the wind, lay rotting along the ground, or had lodged in
falling, constituting a woful picture of wreck and ruin. Here was not only
the confusion and havoc of a primitive forest, untouched by the axe, but the
battle-ground of ages, where frost, fire, and flood had steadily and pitilessly
beaten the forest back in every desperate effort made to scale the summit.
Prone upon the earth, stripped naked, or bursting their bark, the dead trees
looked like fallen giants despoiled of their armor, and left festering upon the
field. But we advanced to a scene still more weird.
The last mile gives occasional glimpses into the Ammonoosuc Valley, of
Fabyan’s, of the hamlet at the base of Washington, and of the mountains
between Fabyan’s and Jefferson. The last half-mile is a steady planting of
one foot before another up the ledges. We left the forest for a scanty growth
of firs, rooted among enormous rocks, and having their branches pinned
down to their sides by snow and ice. The whole forest had been seized,
pinioned, and cast into a death-like stupor. Each tree seemed to keep the
attitude in which it was first overtaken; each silvered head to have dropped
on its breast at the moment the spell overcame it. Perpetual imprisonment
rewarded the temerity of the forest for thus invading the dominion of the Ice
King. There it stood, all glittering in its crystal chains!
But as we threaded our way among these trees, still as statues, the sun
came valiantly to the rescue. A warm breath fanned our cheeks and
traversed the ice-locked forest. Instantly a thrill ran along the mountain.
Quick, snapping noises filled the air. The trees burst their fetters in a trice.
Myriad crystals fluttered overhead, or fell tinkling on the rocks at our feet.
Another breath, and tree after tree lifted its bowed head gracefully erect.
The forest was free.
George, who began by asking every few rods how much farther it was,
now repeated the question for the fiftieth time; but we paid no attention.
We now entered a sort of liliputian forest, not higher than the knee, but
which must have presented an almost insuperable barrier to early explorers
of the mountain. In fact, as they could neither go through it nor around it,
they must have walked over it, the thick-matted foliage rendering this the
only alternative. No one could tell how long these trees had been growing,
when a winter of unheard-of severity destroyed them all, leaving only their
skeletons bleaching in the sun and weather. Wrenched, twisted, and made to
grow the wrong way by the wind, the branches resembled the cast-off
antlers of some extinct race of quadrupeds which had long ago resorted to
the top of the mountain. The girdle of blasted trees below was piteous, but
this was truly a strange spectacle. Indeed, the pallid forehead of the
mountain seemed wearing a crown of thorns.
Getting clear of the dwarf-trees, or knee-wood, as it is called in the Alps,
we ran quickly up the bare summit ledge. The transition from the gloom and
desolation below into clear sunshine and free air was almost as great as
from darkness to light. We lost all sense of fatigue; we felt only exultation
and supreme content.
Here we were, we three, more than four thousand feet above the sea,
confronted by an expanse so vast that no eye but an eagle’s might grasp it,
so thronged with upstarting peaks as to confound and bewilder us out of all
power of expression. One feeling was uppermost—our own insignificance.
We were like flies on the gigantic forehead of an elephant.
However, we had climbed and were astride the ridge-pole of New
England. The rains which beat upon it descend on one side to the Atlantic,
on the other to Long Island Sound. The golden sands which are the glory of
the New England coast have been borne, atom by atom, grain by grain,
from this grand laboratory of Nature; and if you would know the source of
her great industries, her wealth, her prosperity, seek it along the rivers
which are born of these skies, cradled in these ravines, and nourished amid
the tangled mazes of these impenetrable forests. How, like beautiful
serpents, their sources lie knotted and coiled in the heart of these
mountains! How lovingly they twine about the feet of the grand old hills!
Too proud to bear its burdens, they create commerce, building cities,
scattering wealth as they run on. No barriers can stay, no chains fetter their
free course. They laugh and run on.
We stood facing the south. Far down beneath us, at our left, was the
valley of Mount Washington River. A dark, serpentine rift in the unbroken
forest indicated the course of the stream. Mechanically we turned to follow
it up the long gorge through which it flows, to where it issues, in secret,
from the side of Mount Washington itself. In front of us arose the great
Notch Mountains; beyond, mountains were piled on mountains; higher still,
like grander edifices of some imperial city, towered the pinnacles of
Lafayette, Carrigain, Chocorua, Kearsarge, and the rest. Yes, there they
were, pricking the keen air with their blunted spears, fretting the blue vault
with the everlasting menace of a power to mount higher if it so willed,
filling us with the daring aspiration to rise as high as they pointed. Here and
there something flashed brightly upon the eye; but it was no easy thing to
realize that those little pools we saw glistening among the mountains were
some of the largest lakes in New England.
Leaving the massive Franconia group, the eye swept over the
Ammonoosuc basin, over the green heights of Bethlehem and Littleton,
overtopped by the distant Green Mountains; then along the range dividing
the waters flowing from the western slopes of the great summits into
separate streams; then Whitefield, Lancaster, Jefferson; and, lastly, rested
upon the amazing apparition of Washington, rising two thousand feet above
the crags on which we stood. Perched upon the cap-stone of this massive
pile, like a dove-cot on the cupola of St. Peter’s, we distinctly saw the
Summit House. Between us and our goal rose the brown heads of Pleasant,
Franklin, and Monroe, over which our path lay. All these peaks and their
connecting ridges were freely spattered with snow.
“By Jove!” ejaculated the colonel at last; “this beats Kentucky!”
It is necessary to say two words concerning a spectacle equally novel
and startling to dwellers in more temperate regions, and which now held us
in mingled astonishment and admiration. We could hardly believe our eyes.
This bleak and desolate ridge, where only scattered tufts of coarse grass,
stinted shrubs, or spongy moss gave evidence of life, which seemed never
to have known the warmth of a sunbeam, was transformed into a garden of
exquisite beauty by the frozen north wind.
We remarked the iced branches of dwarf firs inhabiting the upper zone of
the mountain as we passed them; but here, on this summit, the surfaces of
the rocks actually bristled with spikes, spear-heads, and lance-points, all of
ice, all shooting in the direction of the north wind. The forms were as
various as beautiful, but most commonly took that of a single spray, though
sometimes they were moulded into perfect clusters of berries, branching
coral, or pendulous crystals. Common shrubs were transformed to diamond
aigrettes, coarse grasses into bird-of-paradise plumes, by the simple
adhesion of frost-dust. The iron rocks attracted the flying particles as the
loadstone attracts steel. Cellini never fashioned anything half so marvellous
as this exquisite workmanship of a frozen mist. Yet, though it was all
surpassingly beautiful, it was strangely suggestive of death. There was no
life—no, not even the chirrup of an insect. No wonder our eyes sought the
valley.
Hardly had we time to take in these unaccustomed sights, when, to our
unspeakable dismay, ominous streakings of gray appeared in the southern
and eastern horizons. The sun was already overclouded, and emitted only a
dull glare. For a moment a premonition of defeat came over me; but another
look at the summit removed all indecision, and, without mentioning my
fears to my companions, we all three plunged into the bushy ravine that
leads to Mount Pleasant.
Suddenly I felt the wind in my face, and the air was filled with whirling
snow-flakes. We had not got over half the distance to the second mountain,
before the ill-omened vapors had expanded into a storm-cloud that boded
no good to any that might be abroad on the mountain. My idea was that we
could gain the summit before it overtook us. I accordingly lengthened my
steps, and we moved on at a pace which brought us quickly to the second
mountain. But, rapidly as we had marched, the storm was before us.
Here began our first experience of the nature of the task in hand. The
burly side of Mount Pleasant was safely turned, but beyond this snow had
obliterated the path, which was only here and there indicated by little heaps
of loose stones. It became difficult, and we frequently lost it altogether
among the deep drifts. We called a halt, passed the flask, and attempted to
derive some encouragement from the prospect.
The storm-cloud was now upon us in downright earnest. Already the
flying scud drifted in our faces, and poured, like another Niagara, over the
ridge one long, unbroken billow. The sun retreated farther and farther, until
it looked like a farthing dip shining behind a blanket. Another furious blast,
and it disappeared altogether. And now, to render our discomfiture
complete, the gigantic dome of Washington, that had lured us on,
disappeared, swallowed up in a vortex of whirling vapor; and presently we
were all at once assailed by a blinding snow-squall. Henceforth there was
neither luminary nor landmark to guide us. None of us had any knowledge
of the route, and not one had thought of a guide. To render our situation
more serious still, George now declared that he had sprained an ankle.
If I had never before realized how the most vigorous travellers had
perished within a few paces of the summit, I understood it this day.
Bathed in perspiration, warned by the fresh snow that the path would
soon be lost beyond recovery, we held a brief council upon the situation
before and behind us. It was more than aggravating either way.
All three secretly favored a retreat. Without doubt it was not only the
safest, but the wisest course to pursue; yet to turn back was to give in
beaten, and defeat was not easy to accept. Even George, notwithstanding his
ankle, was pluckily inclined to go on. There was no time to lose, so we
emerged from the friendly shelter of a jutting ledge upon the trackless waste
before us.
From this point, at the northern foot of Pleasant, progress was
necessarily slow. We could not distinguish objects twenty paces through the
flying scud and snow, and we knew vaguely that somewhere here the
mountain ridge suddenly broke off, on both sides, into precipices thousands
of feet down. George, being lame, kept the middle, while the colonel and I
searched for stone-heaps at the right and left.
We were marching along thus, when I heard an exclamation, and saw the
colonel’s hat driven past me through the air. The owner ran rapidly over to
my side.
“Take care!” I shouted, throwing myself in his path; “take care!”
“But my hat!” cried he, pushing on past me. The wind almost drowned
our voices.
“Are you mad?” I screamed, gripping his arm, and forcing him backward
by main strength.
He gave me a dazed look, but seemed to comprehend nothing of my
excitement. George halted, looking first at one, then at the other.
“Wait,” said I, loosening a piece of ice with my boot. On both sides of us
rose a whirlpool of boiling clouds. I tossed the piece of ice in the direction
the hat had taken—not a sound; a second after the first—the same silence; a
third in the opposite direction. We listened intently, painfully, but could hear
nothing except the loud beating of our own hearts. A dozen steps more
would have precipitated our companion from the top to the bottom of the
mountain.
I looked at the man whose arm I still tightly grasped. He was as pale as a
corpse.
“This must be Oakes’s Gulf,” I ventured, in order to break the silence,
after we had all taken a pull at the flask.
“This is Oakes’s Gulf—agreed; but where in perdition is my hat?”
demanded the colonel, wiping the big drops from his forehead.
After he had tied a handkerchief around his head, we crossed this Devil’s
Bridge, with the caution of men fully alive to the consequences of a false
step, and with that tension of the nerves which announces the terrible or the
unknown.[9]
We had not gone far when a tremendous gust sent us reeling toward the
abyss. I dropped on my hands and knees, and my companions followed suit.
We arose, shook off the snow, and slowly mounted the long, steep, and
rocky side of Franklin. Upon gaining the summit, the walking was better.
We were also protected by the slope of the mountain. The worst seemed
over. But what fantastic objects were the big rocks, scattered, or rather lying
in wait, along our route! What grotesque appearances continually started
out of the clouds! Now it was an enormous bear squatted on his haunches;
now a dark-browed sphinx; and more than once we could have sworn we
saw human beings stealthily watching us from a distance. How easy to
imagine these weird objects lost travellers, suddenly turned to stone for
their presumptuous invasion of the domain of terrors! It really seemed as if
we had but to stamp our feet to see a legion of demons start into life and bar
our way.
Say what you will, we could not shake off the dread which these
unearthly objects inspired; nor could we forbear, were it at the risk of being
turned to stone, looking back, or peering furtively from side to side when
some new apparition thrust its hideous suggestions before us. What would
you have? Are we not all children who shrink from entering a haunted
chamber, and shudder in the presence of death? Well, the mountain was
haunted, and death seemed near. We forgot fatigue, forgot cold, to yield to
this mysterious terror, which daunted us as no peril could do, and froze us
with vague presentiment of the unknown.
 Covered from head to foot with snow, bearded with icicles, tracking this
solitude, which refused the echo of a foot-fall, like spectres, we seemed to
have entered the debatable ground forever dedicated to spirits having
neither home on earth nor hope in heaven, but doomed to wander up and
down these livid crags for an eternity of woe. The mountain had already
taken possession of our physical, now it seized upon our moral nature.
Neither the one nor the other could resist the impressions which naked rock,
furious tempest, and hidden danger stamped on every foot of the way.
In this way we reached Mount Monroe, last of the peaks in our route to
the summit, where we were forced to pick our way among the rocks,
struggling forward through drifts frequently waist deep.
It was here that, finding myself some distance in advance of the others—
for poor George was lagging painfully—I halted for them to come up. I was
choking with thirst, aggravated by eating the damp snow. As soon as the
colonel was near enough—the wind only could be heard—I made a gesture
of a man drinking. He did not seem to understand, though I impatiently
repeated the pantomime. He came to where I stood.
“The flask!” I exclaimed.
He drew it slowly from his pocket, and handed it to me with a hang-dog
look that I failed for the moment to interpret. I put it to my lips, shook it,
turned it bottom up. Not a drop!
And, nevertheless, this was the man in whom I had trusted. Cæsar only
succumbed to the dagger of Brutus; but I had not the courage to fall with
dignity under this new misfortune, and so stood staring at the flask and the
culprit alternately.
“Say that our cup is now full,” suggested the incorrigible George. “The
paradox strikes me as ingenious and appropriate.”
It really was too bad. Snow and sleet had wet us to the skin, and clung to
our frozen garments. Our hands and faces were swollen and inflamed; our
eyes half closed and blood-shot. Even this short minute’s halt set our teeth
chattering. George could only limp along, and it was evident could not hold
out much longer. Just now my uneasiness was greater than my sympathy.
He was an accessory before the fact; for, while I was diligently looking out
the path, he had helped the colonel to finish the flask.
We were nearing the goal: so much was certain. But the violence of the
gale, increasing with the greater altitude, warned us against delay. We
therefore pushed on across the stony terraces extending beyond, and were at
length rewarded by seeing before us the heaped-up pile of broken granite
constituting the peak of Washington, and which we knew still rose a
thousand feet above our heads. The sight of this towering mass, which
seems formed of the débris of the Creation, is well calculated to stagger
more adventurous spirits than the three weary and foot-sore men who stood
watching the cloud-billows, silently rolling up, dash themselves
unceasingly against its foundations. We looked first at the mountain, then in
each other’s faces, then began the ascent.
For near an hour we toiled upward, sometimes up to the middle in snow,
always carefully feeling our way among the treacherous pitfalls it
concealed. Compelled to halt every few rods to recover breath, the distance
traversed could not be great. Still, with dogged perseverance, we kept on,
occasionally lending each other a helping hand out of a drift, or from rock
to rock; but no words were exchanged, for the stock of gayety with which
we set out was now exhausted. The gravity of the situation began to create
uneasiness in the minds of my companions. All at once I heard my name
called out. I turned. It was the colonel, whose halloo in midst of this stony
silence startled me.
“You pretend,” he began, “that it’s only a thousand feet from the plateau
to the top of this accursed mountain?”
“No more, no less. Professor Guyot assures us of the fact.”
“Well, then, here we have been zigzagging about for a good hour,
haven’t we?”
“An hour and twenty minutes,” said I, consulting my watch.
“And not a sign of the houses or the railway, or any other creeping thing.
Do you want my opinion?”
“Charmed.”
“We have passed the houses without seeing them in the storm, and are
now on the side of the mountain opposite from where we started.”
“So that you conclude—?”
“We are lost.”
This was, of course, mere guesswork; but we had no compass, and might
be travelling in the wrong direction, after all. A moment’s reflection,
however, reassured me. “Is that your opinion, too, George?” I asked.
 George had taken off his boot, and was chafing his swollen ankle. He
looked up.
“My opinion is that I don’t know anything about it; but as you got us
into this scrape, you had better get us out of it, and be spry about it too, for
the deuce take me if I can go much farther.”
“Why,” croaked the colonel, “I recollect hearing of a traveller who, like
us, actually walked by the Summit House without seeing it, when he was
hailed by a man who, by mere accident, chanced to be outside, and who
imagined he saw something moving in the fog. In five minutes the stranger
would inevitably have walked over a precipice with his eyes open.”
“And I remember seeing on the wall of the tavern where we stopped, at
Bartlett, a placard offering a reward for a man who, like us, set out from
Crawford’s, and was never heard of,” George put in.[10]
“And I read of one who, like us, almost reached the summit, but
mistaking a lower peak for the pinnacle, losing his head, crawled,
exhausted, under a rock to die there,” I finished, firing the last shot.
Without another word both my comrades grappled vigorously with the
mountain, and for ten minutes nothing was heard but our labored breathing.
On whatever side we might be, so long as we continued to ascend I had
little fear of being in the wrong road. Our affair was to get to the top.
At the end of ten minutes we came suddenly upon a walled enclosure,
which we conjectured to be the corral at the end of the bridle-path. We
hailed it like an oasis in the midst of this desert. We entered, brushed the
snow from a stone, and sat down.
Up to this time my umbrella had afforded a good deal of merriment to
my companions, who could not understand why I encumbered myself with
it on a day which began as this one did, perfectly clear and cloudless. Since
the storm came on, the force of the wind would at any time have lifted off
his feet the man who attempted to spread it, and even if it had not, as well
might one have walked blindfolded in that treacherous road as with an open
umbrella before him. Now it was my turn, or, rather, the turn of the abused
umbrella. A few moments of rest were absolutely necessary; but the wind
cut like a cimeter, and we felt ourselves freezing. I opened the umbrella,
and, protected by it from the wind, we crouched under its friendly shelter,
and lighted our cigars. Never before did I know the luxury of a smoke like
that.
 “Now,” said I, complacently glancing up at our tent, “ever since I read
how an umbrella saved a man’s life, I determined never to go on a mountain
without one.”
“An umbrella! How do you make that out?” demanded both my auditors.
“It is very simple. He was lost on this very mountain, under conditions
similar to those we are now experiencing, except that his carrying an
umbrella was an accident, and that he was alone. He passed two nights
under it. But the story will keep.”
It may well be imagined that we had not the least disposition to be
merry; yet for all that there was something irresistibly comical in three men
sitting with their feet in the snow, and putting their heads together under a
single umbrella. Various were the conjectures. We could hear nothing but
the rushing wind, see nothing but driving sleet. George believed we were
still half a mile from the summit; the colonel was not able to precisely fix
his opinion, but thought us still a long way off. After diligent search, in
which we all joined, I succeeded in finding something like a path turning to
the right, and we again resumed our slow clambering over the rocks.
Perhaps ten minutes passed thus, when we again halted and peered
anxiously into the whirling vapor—nothing, neither monument nor stone, to
indicate where we were. A new danger confronted us; one I had hitherto
repulsed because I dared not think of it. The light was failing, and darkness
would soon be here. God help any that this night surprised on the mountain!
While we eagerly sought on all sides some evidence that human feet had
ever passed that way, a terrific blast, that seemed to concentrate the fury of
the tempest in one mighty effort, dashed us helpless upon the rocks. For
some seconds we were blinded, and could only crouch low until its violence
subsided. But as the monstrous wave recoiled from the mountain, a piercing
cry brought us quickly to our feet.
“Look!” shouted George, waving his hat like a madman—“look there!”
he repeated.
Vaguely, through the tattered clouds, like a wreck driving miserably
before the tempest, we distinguished a building propped up by timbers
crusted with thick ice. The gale shook and beat upon it with demoniacal
glee, but never did weary eyes rest on a more welcome object. For ten
seconds, perhaps, we held it in view; then, in a twinkling, the clouds rolled
over it, shut together, and it was gone—swallowed up in the vortex.
 A moment of bewilderment succeeded, after which we made a
simultaneous rush in the direction of the building. In five minutes more we
were within the hotel, thawing our frozen clothing before a rousing fire.
It provokes a smile when I think of it. Here, in this frail structure,
perched like another Noah’s Ark on its mountain, and which every gust
threatened to scatter to the winds of heaven, a grand piano was going in the
parlor, a telegraphic instrument clicked in a corner, and we sat down to a
ménu that made the colonel forget the loss of his hat.
“By the bones of Daniel Boone! I can say as Napoleon did on the Great
St. Bernard, ‘I have spoiled a hat among your mountains; well, I shall find a
new one on the other side,’” observed the colonel, uncorking a second
bottle of champagne.
 SECOND JOURNEY.
PAGE
I. LEGENDS OF THE CRYSTAL HILLS 113
II. JACKSON AND THE ELLIS VALLEY 122
III. THE CARTER NOTCH 132
IV. THE PINKHAM NOTCH 144
V. A SCRAMBLE IN TUCKERMAN’S 155
VI. IN AND ABOUT GORHAM 165
VII. ASCENT BY THE CARRIAGE-ROAD 178
VIII. MOUNT WASHINGTON 189

[larger view]
[largest view]
 SECOND JOURNEY

I.

LEGENDS OF THE CRYSTAL HILLS.

My lord, I will hoist saile; and all the wind

My bark can beare shall hasten me to find
A great new world.—Sir W. Davenant.

W HEN Cabot, in the Mathew, of Bristol, was sailing by the New

England coast, and the amazed savage beheld a pyramid of white sails
rising, like a cloud, out of the sea, the navigator saw from the deck of
his ship, rising out of the land, a cluster of lofty summits cut like a cameo
on the northern sky.
The Indian left his tradition of the marvellous apparition, which he at
first believed to be a mass of trees wrapped in faded foliage, drifting slowly
at the caprice of the waves; but, as he gazed, fire streamed from the strange
object, a cloud shut it from his view, and a peal like distant thunder was
wafted on the breeze to his startled ears. That peal announced the doom of
his race. He was looking at the first ship.
Succeeding navigators, Italians, Portuguese, French, English—a roll of
famous names—sailed these seas, and, in their turn, hailed the distant
summits. They became the great distinguishing landmarks of this corner of
the New World. They are found on all the maps traced by the early
geographers from the relations of the discoverers themselves. Having thus
found form and substance, they also found a name—the Mountains of St.
John.
Ships multiplied. Men of strange garb, speech, complexion, erected their
habitations along the coast, the unresisting Indian never dreaming that the
thin line which the sea had cast up would speedily rise to an inundation
destined to sweep him from the face of the earth. Then began that steady
advance, slow at first, gathering momentum with the years, before which he
recoiled step by step, and finally disappeared forever. His destiny was
accomplished. To-day only mountains and streams transmit to us the
certainty that he ever did exist. They are his monument, his lament, his
eternal accusation.
The White Mountains stood for the Indian not only as an image, but as
the actual dwelling-place of Omnipotence. His dreaded Manitou, whose
voice was the thunder, whose anger the lightning, and on whose face no
mortal could look and live, was the counterpart of the terrible Thor, the
Icelandic god, throned in a palace of ice among frozen and inaccessible
mountain peaks, over which he could be heard urging his loud chariot amid
the rage of the tempest. Frost and fire, plague and famine were the terrific
natural agents common to the Indian and to the Norse mythology; and to his
god of terrors the Indian conjurer addressed his prayers, his incantations,
and his propitiatory offerings, when some calamity had befallen or
threatened his tribe. But to cross the boundary which separated him from
the abiding-place of the Manitou! plant his audacious foot within the region
from which Nature shrunk back affrighted! Not all the wealth he believed
the mountain hoarded would have tempted him to brave the swift and
terrible vengeance of the justly offended, all-powerful Manitou. So far,
then, as he was concerned, the mountain remained inviolate, inviolable, as a
kind of hell, filled with the despairing shrieks of those who in an evil hour
transgressed the limits sacred to immortals.[11]
As a pendant to this superstition, in which their deity is with simple
grandeur throned on the highest mountain peak, it is curious to remember
the Indian tradition of the Deluge; for, like so many peoples, they had their
tradition, coming from a remote time, and having strong family
resemblance with that of more enlightened nations. According to it, all the
inhabitants of the earth were drowned, except one Powaw and his wife, who
were preserved by climbing to the top of the White Mountains, and who
were the progenitors of the subsequent races of man. The Powaw took with
him a hare, which, upon the subsiding of the waters, he freed, as Noah did
the dove, seeing in its prolonged absence the assurance that he and his
companion might safely descend to earth. The likeness of this tradition with
the story of Deucalion, and Pyrrha, his wife, as related by Ovid, is very
striking. One does not easily consent to refer it to accident alone.
 There is one thing more. When asked by the whites to point out the
Indian’s heaven, the savage stretched his arm in the direction of the White
Hills, and replied that heaven was just beyond. Such being his religion, and
such the influence of the mountain upon this highly imaginative, poetic,
natural man, one finds himself drawn legitimately in the train of those
marvels which our ancestors considered the most credible things in the
world, and which the sceptical cannot explain by a sneer.
According to the Indians, on the highest mountain, suspended from a
crag overlooking a dismal lake, was an enormous carbuncle, which many
declared they had seen blazing in the night like a live coal. Some even
asserted that its ruddy glare lighted the livid rocks around like the fire of a
midnight encampment, while by day it emitted rays, like the sun, dazzling
to look upon. And this extraordinary sight they declared they had not only
seen, but seen again and again.
It is true that the Indians did not hesitate to declare that no mortal hand
could hope to grasp the great fire-stone. It was, said they, in the special
guardianship of the genius of the mountain, who, on the approach of human
footsteps, troubled the waters of the lake, causing a dark mist to rise, in
which the venturesome mortal became bewildered, and then hopelessly lost.
Several noted conjurers of the Pigwackets, rendered foolhardy by their
success in exorcising evil spirits, so far conquered their fears as to ascend
the mountain; but they never returned, and had, no doubt, expiated their
folly by being transformed into stone, or flung headlong down some stark
and terrible precipice.
This tale of the great carbuncle fired the imagination of the simple
settlers to the highest pitch. We believe what we wish to believe, and,
notwithstanding their religion refused to admit the existence of the Indian
demon, its guardian, they seem to have had little difficulty in crediting the
reality of the jewel itself. At any rate, the belief that the mountain shut up
precious mines has come down to our own day; we are assured by a learned
historian of fifty years ago that the story of the great carbuncle still found
full credence in his.[12] We are now acquainted with the spirit of the time
when the first attempt to scale the mountain, known to us, was rewarded
with complete success. But the record is of exasperating brevity.
Among the earliest settlers of Exeter, New Hampshire, was a man by the
name of Darby Field. The antecedents of this obscure personage are
securely hidden behind the mists of more than two centuries.
A hundred and twenty-five years before the ascent of Mont Blanc by
Jacques Balmat, Darby Field successfully ascended to the summit of the
“White Hill,” to-day known as Mount Washington; but the exploit of the
adventurous Irishman is far more remarkable in its way than that of the
brave Swiss, since he had to make his way for eighty miles through a
wilderness inhabited only by beasts of prey, or by human beings scarcely
less savage, before he reached the foot of the great range; while Balmat
lived under the very shadow of the monarch of the Alps, so that its spectre
was forever crossing his path. Furthermore, the greater part of the ascent of
Mont Blanc was already familiar ground to the guides and chamois-hunters
of the Swiss Alps. On the contrary, according to every probability, Field
was the first human being whose daring foot invaded the hitherto inviolable
seclusion of the illustrious hermit of New England.
For such an adventure one instinctively seeks a motive. I did not long
amuse myself with the idea that this explorer climbed merely for the sake of
climbing; and I have little notion that he dreamed of posthumous renown. It
is far more probable that the reports brought by the Indians of the fabulous
treasures of the mountains led to Field’s long, arduous, and really perilous
journey. It is certain that he was possessed of rare intrepidity, as well as the
true craving for adventure. That goes without saying; still, the whole
undertaking—its inception, its pursuit to the end in the face of extraordinary
obstacles, which he had no means of measuring or anticipating—announces
a very different sort of man from the ordinary, a purpose before which all
dangers disappear.
In June, 1642, that is to say, only twelve years after the Puritan
settlements in Massachusetts Bay, Field set out from the sea-coast for the
White Hills.
So far as known, he prosecuted his journey to the Indian village of
Pigwacket, the existence of which is thus established, without noteworthy
accident or adventure. Here he was joined by some Indians, who conducted
him within eight miles of the summit, when, declaring that to go farther
would expose them to the wrath of their great Evil Spirit, they halted, and
refused to proceed. The brave Irishman was equal to the emergency. To turn
back, baffled, within sight of his goal was evidently not an admitted
contingency. Leaving the Indians, therefore, squatted upon the rocks, and
no doubt regarding him as a man rushing upon a fool’s fate, Field again
resolutely faced the mountain, when, seeing him equally unmoved by their
warnings as unshaken in his determination to reach the summit, two of the
boldest warriors ran after him, while the others stoically made their
preparations to await a return which they never expected to take place. They
watched the retreating figures until lost among the rocks.
In the language of the original narration, the rest of the ascent was
effected by “a ridge between two valleys filled with snow, out of which
came two branches of the Saco River, which met at the foot of the hill,
where was an Indian town of two hundred people.” ... “By-the-way, among
the rocks, there were two ponds, one a blackish water, and the other
reddish.”.... “Within twelve miles of the top was neither tree nor grass, but
low savins, which they went upon the top of sometimes.”
The adventurous climber pushed on. Soon he was assailed by thick
clouds, through which he and his companions resolutely toiled upward. This
slow and labored progress through entangling mists continued until within
four miles of the summit, when Field emerged above them into a region of
intense cold. Surmounting the immense pile of shattered rocks which
constitute the spire, he at last stood upon the unclouded summit, with its
vast landscape outspread beneath him, and the air so clear that the sea
seemed not more than twenty miles distant. No doubt the daring explorer
experienced all the triumph natural to his successful achievement. It is not
difficult to imagine the exultation with which he planted his audacious foot
upon the topmost crag, for, like Columbus, Cabot, Balboa, he, too, was a
real discoverer. The Indians must have regarded him, who thus scornfully
braved the vengeance of their god of terrors, as something more than man. I
have often pictured him standing there, proudly erect, while the wonder-
struck savages crouched humbly at his feet. Both, in their way, felt the
presence of their God; but the white man would confront his as an equal,
while the savage adored with his face in the dust.
The three men, after their first emotion of ecstasy, amazement, or fear,
looked about them. For the moment the great carbuncle was forgotten. Field
had chosen the best month of the twelve for his attempt, and now saw a vast
and unknown region stretching away on the north and east to the shores of
what he took for seas, but what were really only seas of vapor, heaped
against the farthest horizons. He fancied he saw a great water to the north,
which he judged to be a hundred miles broad, for no land was beyond it. He
thought he descried the great Gulf of Canada to the east, and in the west the
great lake out of which the river of Canada came. All these illusions are
sufficiently familiar to mountain explorers; and it must not be forgotten that
in Field’s day geographical knowledge of the interior of the country was
indeed limited. In fact, he must have brought back with him the first
accurate knowledge respecting the sources of those rivers flowing from the
eastern slopes of the mountains. The great gulf on the north side of Mount
Washington is truly declared to be such a precipice that they could scarce
discern to the bottom; the great northern wilderness as “daunting terrible,”
and clothed with “infinite thick woods.” Such is its aspect to-day.
The day must have been so far spent that Field had but little time in
which to prosecute his search. He, however, found “store of Muscovy
glass” and some crystals, which, supposing them to be diamonds, he
carefully secured and brought away. These glittering masses, congealed,
according to popular belief, like ice on the frozen regions of the mountains,
gave them the name of the Crystal Hills—a name the most poetic, the most
suggestive, and the most fitting that has been applied to the highest summits
since the day they were first discovered by Englishmen.
Descending the mountain, Field rejoined his Indians, who were
doubtless much astonished to see him return to them safe and sound; for,
while he had been making the ascent, a furious tempest, sent, as these
savages believed, to destroy the rash pale-face and his equally reckless
companions, burst upon the mountain. He found them drying themselves by
a fire of pine-knots; and, after a short halt, the party took their way down
the mountain to the Indian village.
Before a month elapsed, Field, with five or six companions, made a
second ascent; but the gem of inestimable value, by whose light one might
read at night, continued to elude his pursuit. The search was not, however,
abandoned. Others continued it. The marvellous story, as firmly believed as
ever by the credulous, survived, in all its purity, to our own century, to be
finally transmitted to immortality by Hawthorne’s tale of “The Great
Carbuncle.” It may be said here that great influence was formerly attributed
to this stone, which the learned in alchemy believed prevailed against the
dangers of infection, and was a sure talisman to preserve its owner from
peril by sea or by land.
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