Glass ionomer has been widely used in dental treatment for the past decades because of its self-adhesiveness and fluoride-releasing properties. Fluoride promotes mineralization and prevents secondary caries and enamel demineralization when applied as a restorative material. The concept of “minimal intervention dentistry” replaced the traditional idea of conservative dentistry in the 1990s. As a result, the demineralization zone is retained in the treatment of caries. Correspondingly, an increasing number of people started to focus on the capability of restorative material to remineralize the demineralized dentin. Accordingly, scholars have developed and detected the remineralization property of new materials, such as casein phosphopeptide–amorphous calcium phosphate and bioactive resin-modified glass ionomer, as a complement to the effects of fluoride. The structure of a mineralized collagen fiber similar to natural dentin has recently been introduced to primary in vitro biomimetic remineralization experiments on demineralized dentin. Meanwhile, the design of a glass ionomer restorative material system carrying a biomimetic remineralization property is ongoing. This review provides the details of glass ionomer function in dentin remineralization.
