A novel dual material mouthguard for patients with dental implants

Abstract

Dental implant-supported reconstructions demonstrate significantly less physiological flexibility for loading and traumatic forces compared with a normal dentition because of their rigid integration with the adjacent bone. Ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) material has become widely accepted as a mouthguard material; however, many studies indicate the necessity of improving the impact absorption ability by considering the design and developing new materials. The aim of this study was to compare the shock-absorbing ability of a novel dual component material comprising EVA and porous rubber with that of EVA alone. Three groups of samples were tested: Group 1 = EVA (thickness, 4 mm), Group 2 = type 1 material (2-mm thick porous rubber sheet sandwiched between two sheets of 1-mm thick EVA sheets), and Group 3 = type 2 material (1-mm thick porous rubber sheet sandwiched between EVA sheets with 1 and 2-mm thickness, respectively). Shock absorption was determined by means of a hammer impact testing device equipped with strain gauge, accelerator, and load cell. The value of shock-absorbing ability of group 2 (40.6 ± 12.5%) was significantly higher than those of group 1 (15.6 ± 2.1%) and group 3 (21.2 ± 9.2%). The material with thicker rubber sheet showed significantly higher shock-absorbing ability compared with that of the material with thinner rubber sheet. The novel dual material was superior to conventional EVA material in shock-absorbing ability depending on the thickness of porous rubber, and it may be potentially effective as mouthguard material, in particular, for patients wearing implant-supported constructions.