Hussein Mostafa Omran
Department of Prosthodontic Sciences, College of Dentistry in Ar Rass, Qassim University, El-Qassim 58876, Saudi Arabia.
Polymers (Basel). 2022 Jul 23;14(15):2987. doi: 10.3390/polym14152987.
The esthetic clasp material is a clinical demand for a satisfactory removable partial denture. The purpose of this study is to assess the mechanical performance of graphene-based polymer (GBP) and polyether-ether-ketone (PEEK) materials as clasp materials. Thirty-two clasps were fabricated by CAD-CAM from two materials, GBP and PEEK. All clasps were tested for retention force after 10,000 cycles of insertion and removal and thermocycling. The clasp arms’ deformation was measured, and areas of stress−strain concentration were explored. The Mann−Whitney U test was used to compare the retentive force of the studied groups, while the independent sample t-test was applied to check the difference in clasp arm deformation at α = 0.5. The results showed a significantly higher retentive force (2.248 ± 0.315 N) in PEEK clasps, at p < 0.001. The deformation of the clasp arm of the GBP clasps was significantly higher than PEEK clasps. Areas of stress−strain concentration were seen at the junction of the retentive arm to the minor connector and at the retentive arm terminal. It could be concluded that PEEK polymer had a better mechanical performance as an esthetic clasp material than the GBP. An optimization study for GBP might be required to check the validity of such an application.
美观的卡环材料是制作令人满意的可摘局部义齿的临床需求。本研究的目的是评估基于石墨烯的聚合物（GBP）和聚醚醚酮（PEEK）材料作为卡环材料的力学性能。通过CAD-CAM用GBP和PEEK这两种材料制作了32个卡环。所有卡环在进行10000次插入和取出循环以及热循环后测试固位力。测量卡环臂的变形，并探究应力-应变集中区域。采用曼-惠特尼U检验比较研究组的固位力，而应用独立样本t检验在α = 0.5时检查卡环臂变形的差异。结果显示，PEEK卡环的固位力显著更高（2.248±0.315 N），p < 0.001。GBP卡环的卡环臂变形显著高于PEEK卡环。在固位臂与小连接体的连接处以及固位臂末端可见应力-应变集中区域。可以得出结论，作为一种美观的卡环材料，PEEK聚合物比GBP具有更好的力学性能。可能需要对GBP进行优化研究以检验这种应用的有效性。
