Glutaraldehyde release from heat-polymerized acrylic resins after disinfection and chemical and mechanical polishing.

This study evaluated the release of glutaraldehyde from heat-polymerized acrylic resins subjected to disinfection followed by chemical and mechanical polishing. Ninety disc-shaped specimens (15 x 4 mm), 30 per resin (Lucitone 550, QC-20 and Classico), were made and assigned to 2 groups according to the type of polishing. One side of each specimen was not polished and the other was either mechanically (n = 45) or chemically (n = 45) polished, and immersed in water at 50 °C for 1 h to allow the release of intrinsic substances and then kept in distilled water for 7 days. The specimens were disinfected by immersion in 2% glutaraldehyde for 10 min. After this period, 3 specimens from each group were immersed in water for 15, 30, 60, 120 and 240 min. For the 15-, 30-, 60-min immersions, 4 water exchanges were done at the end of period. High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to detect and quantify the glutaraldehyde released after each period. Data were analyzed statistically by two-way ANOVA and multiple comparisons were done by Tukey's and Scheffé's tests (α = 0.05). No glutaraldehyde release was observed from the specimens with chemical polishing at any of the immersion periods, while the mechanically polished specimens released glutaraldehyde. In the groups with water exchanges, Lucitone released more disinfectant in the 15-min period (0.040 μg/mL), Classico in the 30-min (0.021 μg/mL) and 60-min (0.018 μg/mL) periods, and QC-20 the same amount (-1.760 μg/mL) in all periods. In the groups without water exchanges, Lucitone released the highest amount of disinfectant (-1.370 μg/mL), differing significantly from QC-20 (0022 g/mL) and Classico (0019 g/mL), which were similar. The findings of this showed that chemically polished specimens from the 3 resin brands did not release glutaraldehyde after different periods of immersion, while glutaraldehyde release was observed from the mechanically polished specimens, especially from those made of Lucitone resin.