Water Sorption and Solubility of Vanillin-Incorporated Self-Curing Orthodontic Polymethylmethacrylate Resin

Abstract

Polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) resin is one of the most commonly used materials for fabricating the base of removable orthodontic appliances. It is known that PMMA resin can promote the adhesion of microbes due to its surface porosity and from long-term use. Vanillin-incorporated PMMA resin has been reported to have antimicrobial effects against Candida albicans. However, the influence of vanillin incorporation on the water sorption and solubility of self-curing orthodontic PMMA resin has not been studied. Objective: To determine the water sorption and solubility of self-curing orthodontic PMMA resin incorporated with different concentrations of vanillin. Materials and methods: Three groups of self-curing orthodontic PMMA resin incorporated with 0.1% and 0.5% vanillin as well as PMMA without vanillin as a control were prepared with ten specimens per group. Water sorption and solubility tests were performed according to ISO 20795-2:2013 specifications. One-way ANOVA and Tukey’s multiple comparison tests at a p<0.05 significance level were used to analyse the data. Results: All three groups met ISO standard requirements. The means of water sorption values showed insignificant differences among the three groups even though the value of the 0.5% vanillin group tended to decrease. Water solubility of the 0.1% vanillin-incorporated group was not significantly different when compared with the control group whereas that of the 0.5% vanillin-incorporated group exhibited a significant lower value when compared with both control and 0.1% vanillin-incorporated groups. This suggests that increasing concentrations of vanillin would decrease the water solubility of PMMA resin. Conclusion: The incorporation of 0.5% vanillin into self-curing orthodontic PMMA resin could significantly reduce its water solubility and showed a trend of less water sorption property. Even with different vanillin concentrations, the water sorption and water solubility properties of PMMA resin were within the ISO standards. Nevertheless, further studies are recommended to determine the amount of residual monomer present in different concentrations of vanillin-incorporated PMMA resin.