Denture base materials

• Metallic
• Non metallic (acrylic resin)
• Combination of both.
Requirements of a denture base material:
• Biologically inert
• Stiff enough to hold teeth during occlusion
• Minimize uneven loading of mucosa under the
denture
• Should not creep
• Sufficient strength and resilience
• No deterioration in oral environment, food or
drinks.
 Denture base resins
The material of choice?
-Acrylic resin (polymethyl methacrylate)
- Why?
• Desirable qualities:
- Good esthetics
- Cheap
- Easy to process
• Disadvantages:
- Not strong enough
- Susceptible to distortion
- Low thermal conductivity
- Radiolucent
 Dental uses

• Denture base material

• Denture repair
• Denture teeth
• Soft liners
• Construction of customized trays
• Soft tissue replication on cast metal framework
 Types

• Heat cured
• Cold cures
• Light cured
• Microwave cured
 Acrylic resins
Heat-cured acrylic materials
Composition
A-powder (polymer):
Polymethyl methacrylate,
Peroxide initiator 0.2-0.5%,
Pigment 1%.
B-liquid (monomer):
Methyl methacrylate,
Stabilizer,
cross-linking agent
 Heat cured resins
Powder
• Beads or granules of PMMA
• Initiator: benzoyl peroxide
• Pigments
• Opacifiers: titanium/zinc oxide
• Plasticiser: dibutyl phthalate
• Synthetic fibers: nylon/acrylic
 Heat cured resins

Liquid
• Methyl methacrylate monomer.
Hydroquinone (inhibitor) for shelf life

• Crosslinking agent: ethylene glycol

dimethacrylate. This component improves
mechanical properties( craze resistance)
 Continue,
MMA monomer:
- Volatile
- Flammable
Precautions:
• Kept in a sealed dark container away from
light source or heat source

• No contact should be allowed with the

polymer beads (carry benzoyl peroxide
initiator)
 Continue,

• The reaction is an addition polymerization

reaction to convert MMA (methyl
methacrylate) to PMMA (polymethylmethacrylate).
• Mono= single
• Poly= many
Properties continue,
• Mechanical properties:

1. Dentures are prone to fracture

2. Commonly, midline of upper denture
 Physical properties

Thermal conductivity Very low, disadvantage:

Isolates tissue from
temperature sensation

Coefficient of thermal High, if teeth are from

expansion (CTE) porcelain, differential
expansion loose teeth

Water sorption & solubility Absorb water slowly.

Insoluble in oral fluids
 Residual monomer
• Processing at too low temperature, or for short
time, higher residual monomer values.

• This should be avoided because:

1. Free released monomer will act as a platicizer.
2. free monomer is highly irritant to the oral tissues
Dimensional changes
-Thermal exp. Of the dough
-polymerization shrinkage
-thermal shrinkage on cooling
 Setting stages
• Sandy stage: immediately after mixing

• Sticky or stringy stage

• Dough stage: mix is cohesive and less tacky, easy

to manipulate (time to pack in the moulds)
- Dough stage period is the working time.
- Time taken to reach dough stage is doughing time

• Rubbery stage
 Continue,
Dough technique: The powder-liquid mix is used,
when it reaches the dough stage, it is used to pack
the flask containing the teeth and the set plaster
which will then be closed under pressure.
Manipulation of the mix in the dough. stage is
easier and produces better results.
 Manipulation
• Polymer/monomer ratio :- 3-3.5/1 by volume,
or 2.5 / 1 by weight.

• Mixing:- Correct proportions are mixed and

allowed to stand in a closed container until the
dough stage in reached.

• Stages: 1/ sandy stage 2/ sticky stage3/ dough or

working stage 4/ rubbery stage.
Mould lining:- The wall of the mould must be
lined :
1- To prevent monomer penetrating into the mould
material, producing a rough surface with adherent
mould material.

2- To prevent water from the mould entering into the

acrylic resin.

Formerly tin foil was widely used to line the moulds

but today potassium or sodium alginate are mainly
used.
Packing:- It is important to ensure that:
• The mould is full.
• Sufficient pressure on the mould.

Curing :- The packed mould is heated in an oven or

water bath; both the temperature and time of heating
must be controlled.
Two alternative heating techniques are used:
• Heat at 72 °c for at least 16 hours, or
• Heat at 72 °c for 2 hours; the temperature is then
raised to 100 °c for further 2 hours.
• Cooling :- The flask should be cooled slowly on
the bench, or in the oven or water bath. There
should be never be sudden cooling.

• Deflasking:- Done with care to avoid breaking of

the denture.

• Finishing and polishing :- Pumice in water is

commonly used.
 Properties
5 problems encountered with acrylic resin:

1- Residual monomer :- Processing at too low

temperature, or for too short time, gives
higher residual monomer values. This should
be avoided because :
• Irritate the oral tissues.
• Act as plasticizer and make the resin weaker and
more flexible.
2- porosity :
• Shrinkage porosity appears as irregular voids on the
surface of the denture.

• Gaseous porosity shows as fine uniform bubbles,

particularly in thicker sections of the denture

3- Water absorption:- dentures should at all times

kept wet when not in service.
4- Crazing:- Cracks may appear on the surface of the
resin; result from:
■mechanical stresses on repeated drying and
wetting of the denture.

■ Stresses due to difference in the coefficients of

thermal expansion between porcelain teeth or other
inserts, such as clasps and the acrylic denture
base.

■Solvent action - for example, when a denture is

being repaired, some monomer come in contact with
the resin and may cause crazing.
5- Fracture:- Denture may break but its easy to repair
■ on impact, if dropped on a hard surface.
■ due to fatigue, from repeated bending of the
denture in service.
 II.Cold cure resin
• Composition: identical to heat cure resin except
polymerization is initiated by tertiary amine. They
contain an inhibitor (hydroquinone) that destroys
free radicals to prolong working time
Autopolymerized acrylic resin (chemical cured)
• Their composition similar to heat cured materials except that the liquid
contains an activator, such as dimethyl-p-toludine. They are sometimes
called cold curing, or chemical activation.
Comparison with heat cured materials:
Self cured Heat cured
1.activation. chemical. Heat
2.Porosity greater less
3.R.monomer more up to5% causes less
irritation to soft tissue
4.M.properties less due to increase R.M more strong
5.Color poor color stability. stable
if T.amine activator used.
6.D.changes. less shrinkage greater
7.Uses 1. special tray for 2nd imp.. denture base
2. Repair of complete denture
3.Posterior palatal seal of upper denture
 Modified types of acrylic resins
• 1- Microwave-polymerized acrylic
• These technique using microwave energy for polymerization instead of
heat and boiling water.
• These technique need special formulated resin and non metallic flask and
microwave oven
• The major advantage is rapid of polymerization without marked porosity
and good physical and mechanical properties in comparing with
conventional acrylic.
• 2. Rapid heat-polymerized resins:
• These are hybrid acrylics that polymerized for 20 minutes in boiling water
immediately after being packed into denture flask for quick curing. The
initiator is formulated to allow rapid polymerization without porosity.
• 3.High impact strength resin:
• These materials are PMMR reinforced with butadiene-styrene rubber
which added to the monomer so that they will bond well to the heat
polymerized acrylic matrix.
• These materials supplies in a powder and liquid as heat cured acrylic resin .
They have greater impact strength than conventional acrylic resin.
4.pour type of denture resin Fluid resin):
• It's a type from self cured acrylic resin with less particle
size of the polymer, when mixing polymer to monomer
the result is very fluid mixture.

• The mix is quickly poured into an agar hydrocolloid or

modified plaster mould and allowed to polymerize under
pressure. Not used metallic flask..

Advantages, improved adaptation to the under lying

tissues, Reduce processing time and material cost,
simple flasking, deflasking and finishing and polishing
procedures.
Disadvantages, shifting of teeth during processing,
inferior mechanical properties, air pubbles entrapment
and weak bond between denture base and teeth.
Applications:
Self-cured are used:
■ construction of special trays for impression taking.
■ denture repair, relining and rebasing.
■ removable orthodontic appliances.
■For adding a post-dam to an adjusted upper
denture.
 Light cure
• Light-activated material
• Urethane dimethacrylate (UDMA), acrylic
• copolymer, silica fillers
• Supplied in premixed sheet adapted to a cast
• (Polymerizing in a light chamber at 400-500 nm
(blue range)
• Teeth are added and light exposure
• No flasking and packing processes
Advantages,
Advantages less equipment's and reduced time for
processing dentures but disadvantages is less
adaptation and more expensive.
• Contain no MMA, use in Pt who has MMA sensitivity
 Manipulation and Processing
Manipulation

1. Powder:liquid, THE GOLDEN RULE: always use

powder:liquid ratio recommended by manufacturer.
(2.0/1.0 wt %, 1.6/1.0 vol.%) to keep polymerization
shrinkage at 5-8%
• Too much powder?
• Too much monomer?
• Too early- (Stage II)- acrylic resin has too low
viscosity to densely fill the mold. Results in
porosity in the final prosthesis.
• Too late- (Stage IV)- inability to close the flask,
loss of
detail and increase in vertical dimension of
occlusion in
final prosthesis, as well as, movement and/or
fracture of teeth.
 Manipulation
2. Control of color: pigments responsible for the color
are incorporated into the polymer, sometimes on the
beads surface and can be washed away if
incorporated into monomer too quickly

3. Mould lining: to prevent penetration of resin into

plaster, separating medium used e.g. sodium alginate,
tin foil
 Manipulation
4. Processing: porosity, processing strains.
• Porosity: caused by,

1. Polymerization shrinkage (contraction porosity)

2.Volatilization of monomer (gaseous porosity)
3.Granular porosity, due to loss of monomer
while resin mix is left to stand until dough
stage is reached. Also if the resin mix is dry
 Continue,
• Processing strains:
• Internal strains occur during processing of resin
• If allowed to relax, warpage, distortion and crazing
(tiny surface defects) occur
• Some are relieved as the material flows but thermal
contraction strains may remain. This can be
minimized by:
1. Slowly cooling flask
2. Using acrylic rather than porcelain teeth to ensure
compatible shrinking
 Properties of resin
• Biocompatibility:
• -High, however, allergy may occur due to leachable
components mainly the monomer and benzoic acid
•.
• -Allergy is mainly associated with cold cure resin
due to high residual monomer

• -As a replacement, denture bases maybe

constructed from polycarbonate
 Denture lining material

Divided into:
- Permanent hard reline materials
- Semi-permanent soft liners
-Tissue conditioners/temporary liners
• Materials used:
• Heat cure resin, in the lab.
• Cold cure resin, chairside. Disadvantages:
• Poor taste
• Poor color stability
• Exothermic reaction
• Lack of control over amount of denture removes &
thickness of reline
 Acrylic teeth
• Advantages compared to ceramic teeth:
• Bond to denture base material
• Easy to grind during occlusal adjustment
• Do not wear natural, artificial opposing teeth
• Easily repolished

• Disadvantages:
-Soft and easily wear
-Stain over time
FIGURE 13-8 Plastic and porcelain denture teeth.
Porcelain teeth (por) do not chemically bond to the
denture base, as do plastic teeth (a); therefore they
have metal pins (p) or retention holes (h) to lock into
the acrylic.
 Construction of PMMA
1- Compression molding technique
Several steps for denture construction starting from primary
impression and with changing the waxed denture into acrylic one by
using denture flask.
a-Mold construction by investing the waxed denture with gypsum
b- Mixing of acrylic resin
-The correct ration is 3P/1L by volume and 2/1 by weight are mixed in
glass or ceramic cup
-Immediately after mixing the following steps or stages of reaction
between monomer and polymer will occurred
1- Sandy stage, friable mix, the mix not adhere to the cup wall
2-Stringy stage, formation of fine strings, still not adhere to cup
3- dough stage, the particles cohere together, does not adhere to cup
wall and the mix become putty-like plastic mass. Acrylic used at this
stage
4-Rubbery stage, the particles become more rubbery and difficult to
molding
C-Packing of mixed acrylic (trial closure)
D-Curing of the packing acrylic
1- rapid = cure at 71-72°C for 40 min +100°C for 30 min
2- Fast Cycle = cure at 71-72°C for 90 min + 100°C for 30
min.
3-Slow Cycle cure at 71-72°C for 10 hrs.
[A slow cycle is better with larger amounts of material.]
[Generally, slow cures result in better dimensional accuracy.]
E-Cooling the flask
F-Deflasking, finishing and polishing of cured denture

2- Injection molding technique

This technique needs special type of flask with a hole at its
back and metal injection are essential for packing
procedures.