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In this study, dental composites were fabricated by adding different weight percentages of nanoalumina (5–20 wt%) and marble dust powder (5–20 wt%) in the base monomer system comprised of Bisphenol-A glycidyl methacrylate, Tri-ethylene glycol dimethacrylate, Camphorquinone, and Dimethyl Amino Ethyl Methacrylate. Physical and mechanical characterizations such as void content test, Micro-hardness test, Compressive strength, Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and thermo-gravimetric analysis were performed to evaluate/compare the contribution of each of the nanoalumina and marble dust powder to the performance of dental composite. The result of experiment was indicated that by the addition of 5 wt% of nanoalumina increased the hardness and compressive strength by 88.46% and 23.25% whereas addition of 5 wt% of marble powder increased the hardness and compressive strength by 51.27% and 21.2%, respectively. DMA results revealed that addition of nanoalumina up to 20 wt% increased the storage modulus by 112.2%, whereas, the addition of marble powder up to 20 wt% increased the storage modulus by 191.2%. The thermal stability of dental composite was decreased with the addition of nanoalumina from 0 to 20 wt% and increased with the addition of marble dust powder from 0 to 20 wt%. Finally, it can be concluded that apart from economical aspect, marble dust powder filled dental composite also exhibited better thermo-mechanical and thermal properties than that of nanoalumina filled dental composite. POLYM. COMPOS., 2016. © 2016 Society of Plastics Engineers