Statement of problem: Fracture of a repaired denture base often occurs at the junction of the base and repair materials rather than within these materials.
Purpose: The purpose of the study was to evaluate the shear bond strengths of 4 denture base acrylic resins following the use of 3 chemical solvents and to examine treated acrylic resin surfaces under a field emission scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Material and methods: Forty discs (15 mm in diameter and 3 mm thick) were fabricated for each denture base material (a conventionally molded, heat-polymerized [Meliodent, M], an injection-molded, heat-polymerized [SR-Ivocap, I], and a microwave-polymerized [Acron MC, A]) repaired with an autopolymerizing acrylic resin (Meliodent), for a total of 120 specimens, processed according to manufacturers' instructions, embedded in acrylic resin blocks, and divided into 4 groups of 10. One of the groups served as control and had no surface treatment. In the 3 experimental groups, specimen surfaces were treated with chemical etchants by immersion in acetone (ac) for 30 seconds, in methylene chloride (mc) for 30 seconds, or in MMA (mo) for 180 seconds, respectively. Then autopolymerizing acrylic resin (Meliodent) was placed on the treated surfaces using a brass ring (6 mm in diameter and 2 mm in height) to confine the material to a standardized dimension. After 24 hours of storage at 37 degrees C, the shear bond strength (MPa) of the specimens was measured in a universal testing machine. A 2-way analysis of variance and the Tukey HSD test were performed to identify significant differences (alpha=.05). The nature of the failure was noted as adhesive, cohesive, or mixed. The effect of the chemical treatments on the surface of base resins was examined under an SEM.
Results: Chemical treatments increased the bond strength of repair material significantly. Significant differences were found between the control and experimental groups (P<.001). In the control group, M showed the highest (16.7 MPa) bond strength, and A showed the lowest (9.4 MPa). No significant differences were detected between M (18.9 MPa) and A (19.9 MPa) with acetone treatment, or between M (19.3 MPa) and A (20.3 MPa) with methylene chloride treatment. The SEM observations showed that application of chemical etchants produced smoother surfaces than controls.
Conclusion: Chemical treatment prior to denture base repair showed significant improvement on the bond strength of the base materials. Although the microwave-polymerized acrylic resin, A, showed the lowest shear bond strength compared to the control groups, the highest percentage increase was obtained with A after chemical treatments.