Comparative Evaluation of Color Stability of Maxillofacial Silicone Elastomers Following Accelerated Aging Conditions

Objectives: To evaluate and compare the effect of outdoor weathering and accelerated aging conditions on the color stability of two different maxillofacial silicone elastomers.
Methods: 72 maxillofacial silicone discs were exposed to three different conditionongs, including group 1- dark storage, group 2 - aging in an accelerated aging chamber and group 3 - outdoor weathering in a hot and humid environment for a period of 8 months. Color changes were evaluated at base line and after conditioning with a UV Visible spectrophotometer. The change in E, L, a, and b of the specimens were calculated.
Results: All the silicone specimens exhibited variation in color over an exposure period of 8 months.
Conclusions: HTV silicone elastomer consistently showed least color change as compared to the RTV silicone elastomer. accelerated aging in an accelerated aging chamber showed the maximum change. Both Pigmented HTV and RTV silicone elastomers showed greater color variation than the non pigmented category.