Comparison between Retention of Maxillary Acrylic and Nylon Denture Base Materials

Abstract

Loss of teeth is a matter of great concern to majority of the people and their replacement by artificial substitutes, such as dentures, is vital to the continuance of normal life. One of the factors influence patient responses regarding their complete dentures is the quality of retention. Complete denture base is composed of heat polymerized polymethylemethacrylate (PMMA). However, this material presents limitations, particularly in terms of flexural and impact strength and patients representing allergic reaction to PMMA. Nylon denture base material could be useful alternative to PMMA, especially in the patient shows allergy to PMMA. This study was conducted to estimate the difference between retention of conventional acrylic and Valplast maxillary denture base. Ten edentulous patients (five males and five females) with an age range of 45–60 years. For each patient two maxillary dentures were constructed, one from acrylic resin and other from Valplast denture base materials. Specially designed strain gauge–measuring device was used to measure the force required to dislodge the two dentures from basal seats. Six measurements of retention of newly inserted denture base were recorded for each patient (three for maxillary acrylic denture base and three for maxillary nylon denture base). Using paired t-test, a significant improvement in retention obtained by nylon denture base materials in comparison with conventional maxillary acrylic denture base, for both male and female. The retention force that obtained for each patient does not represent the quality of retention for that patient, because we measured the retention at static state and the measurements for each patient were done at same visit of insertion.