Translucency of bulk‐fill composite materials: A systematic review.

Objectives: To conduct a systematic review on the translucency of bulk‐fill (BF) composite materials, evaluating the factors influencing it and its clinical implications. Materials and Methods: A systematic search was performed on four databases (Embase, Medline/PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) for articles published until October 2, 2023. Search terms were: "translucency," "translucency parameter," "contrast," "contrast ratio," "bulk," "bulk‐fill," "bulk fill," "composite," "resin," "resin based," "resin‐based," "restoration," and "dental." In vitro studies, written in English language, investigating BF resin‐based composites translucency were included. The risk of bias was performed with the RoBDEMAT tool. Results: Of 590 screened articles, 13 were included in this review. They investigated 11 high‐viscosity BF and 5 low viscosity ones. The limited number of the identified studies and the heterogeneity of the extracted data did not allow to conduct a meta‐analysis. Conclusions: BF materials exhibit variability in translucency due to variations in experimental designs and the heterogeneous composition. Clinical Significance: BFs may behave differently in masking the substrate or in blending capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]