Bond strength of acrylic teeth to heat cure acrylic resin and thermoplastic denture base materials

Abstract

Background: tooth debonding was one of the major reasons for denture repair. With the use of recently introduced thermoplastic denture base materials the problem of tooth debonding increased due to the nature of the bond between these materials and the acrylic teeth. This study was aimed to assess the bond of the acrylic teeth to conventional heat cure acrylic resin and to thermoplastic resin denture base material and methods to enhance it. Materials and methods: acrylic resin teeth were bonded to heat cure acrylic resin with and without wetting the ridge laps of the teeth with monomer and acrylic teeth with prefabricated retentive holes, unmodified and modified, in their ridge laps were processed with Valplast thermoplastic resin denture base material. The samples were subjected to tensile forces till failure.Results: In general the chemical bond strength of acrylic teeth and heat cure acrylic resin was greater than the mechanical bond strength of the teeth with the Valplast thermoplastic denture base material. Wetting the acrylic resin teeth with monomer enhanced the bond strength with heat cure acrylic resin by 88%. Modifying the prefabricated retentive means of the acrylic resin teeth enhanced the bond strength with the Valplast thermoplastic resin denture base material by 58% Conclusion: wetting the ridge laps of the teeth can increase the bond strength of acrylic teeth and the conventional heat cure resin. A partial solution for the debonding of teeth from Valplast thermoplastic resin dentures is by modifying the prefabricated retentive means for the acrylic teeth to increase the bond strength.