EFFECT OF DIFFERENT DRINKS ON STAINABILITY OF ACRYLIC DENTURE TEETH

Abstract

Acrylic denture teeth may experience colour change after some time in service. The aim of this study was to evaluate the discolouration of the acrylic denture teeth when immersed in tea and cola solutions. These solutions were chosen as they are the daily drink by most Malaysians despite of the age based on surveys in Malaysia. 45 first maxillary anterior acrylic denture teeth were divided into three groups (n=15): control (distilled water), tea and cola solutions. The colour changes were recorded after Day 1, Day 7, Day 15 and Day 30 using Coral dental shade guide and visible spectrometer. The visible spectrometry analysis showed that there is a relatively distinctive feature between reflectance from samples immersed in tea and cola. There is strong indication of colour changes for the samples immersed in tea compared to cola, particularly for wavelength between 400-500 nm after 30 days. The result shows that acrylic teeth became slightly darker when immersed in the tea solution for 15 days and 30 days. Average discolouration of the acrylic teeth on day 15 was 1.1333 (SD 0.3519) and day 30 was 1.4467 (SD 0.5164). On the contrary, teeth immersed in cola did change colour but became slightly brighter. The colour change is insignificant, indicating the stable properties of acrylic denture teeth colour and they were not influenced by extrinsic factors. The discolouration of acrylic resin denture teeth was time dependent and increased proportionally with the immersion period.