Background: Fiber reinforced composite (FRC) is a promising class
of material that gives clinicians alternative treatment options. There are many
FRC products available in the market based on either glass or polyethylene fiber
type. The aim of this study was to present a comparison between glass and
polyethylene fiber reinforced composites based on available literature review.
Material
and Methods: A thorough literature search, with no limitation, was
done up to June 2017.  The range of relevant publications was surveyed using PubMed
and Google Scholar. From the search results, articles related to our search
terms were only considered. An assessment of these articles was done by two
individuals in order to include only articles directly compare between glass
and polyethylene FRCs. The search terms used were "fiber reinforced dental
composites" and "glass and polyethylene fibers in dentistry”
Results: The search
provided 276 titles. Full-text analysis was performed for 29 articles that met
the inclusion criteria. Most were laboratory-based research with various test specimen designs prepared according to
ISO standard or with extracted teeth and only three articles were clinical studies. Most of studies (n=23) found
superior characteristics of glass FRCs over polyethylene FRCs.
Conclusions:
Significant
reinforcement differences between commercial glass and polyethylene fiber reinforced composites
were found.