Assessment of hardness and microroughness of injection-molded thermoplastic resins used for flexible removable partial dentures.

BACKGROUND AND AIM

This study evaluates and compares three types of thermoplastic resins used for flexible, removable partial dentures, focusing on their microhardness and surface roughness.

METHODS

Thirty samples with a thickness of 2 mm were obtained from thermoplastic resins and were tested after 24 hours of immersion in distilled water. The samples were obtained from injected resin cartridges of three thermoplastic resins with different degrees of flexibility. Two-way ANOVA and Tukey tests were performed to compare the samples. A Pearson correlation was calculated between the two parameters, surface roughness and Vickers microhardness.

RESULTS

After statistical analysis, significant differences were found between the two resins' surface roughness. Regarding Vickers microhardness, one of the resins with the lowest flexibility range exhibited higher microhardness values.

CONCLUSIONS

Surface roughness values for the three resins were below 0.2 microns. Microhardness test revealed significant differences between Flaxiacryl and Flexifast samples (p<.05).