Effect of Alcohol and Tea on Solubility of Soft-liner and Polymethyl Methacrylate Resin: An In Vitro Study

Abstract

To evaluate solubility of soft denture liner material and acrylic denture base resin when stored in 8% and 50% concentration of alcohol and tea(with milk and green tea) at an interval of 4,7,11 and 15 days. An in vitro study wasdone on 75 standardized samples in disk form (15 mm × 2 mm), each for soft-liner and acrylic denture base resin. Samples were divided into 5 groups (15 per group/per material) and stored in distilled water (A), 8% alcohol (B), 50% alcohol (C), tea with milk (D) and green tea (E). Solubility was determined at each time interval by dividing difference of weight (taken after drying the sample in a desiccator) from day 1 divided by surface area of the specimen. For each day (i.e., 4, 7, 11 and 15),one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used to determine if the distribution of mean solubility was similar in five groups followed by post-hoc Tukey's test for pair-wise comparisons. Mean solubility of soft-liner was the highest tea with milk (D) followed by green tea (E), then 50% and 8 % alcohol (C and B) and was least in group A at each time of measurement. Mean solubility of an acrylic resin was highest for 8% alcohol (B) and all other groups it was similar. This study shows increased solubility for soft-liners when immersed in tea with milk, green tea, and alcohol at 8% and 50% concentration. The solubility of acrylic resin also increases at 8% alcohol concentration. Drinks/beverages used in our study are commonly consumed, the results of this study caution for restricting the frequency of intake. However, this needs to be confirmed by in-vivo studies designed to prove the association of denture life with the consumption pattern of these drinks/ beverages.