Flexural Strength of 3D Printed Denture Base Materials

Objectives: To compare the strength of 5 3D-printed denture base materials to a milled denture base material and denture repair material.
Methods: CAD software (TinkerCAD, Google) was used to design 3-point bend flexural strength specimens 2.5 x 2.5 x 25mm, n=10/material). Five 3D-printed denture base materials were examined in this study: Optiprint denture (Dentoma), QuraBASE (Ackuretta ), Denture 3D+ (NextDent), Dentca Denture base II (Dentca), and DentaBASE (Asiga). The specimens were printed in printers recommended by manufacturer (see table), cleaned 2x 15min in a 95% isopropyl alcohol ultrasonic bath and post cured (PROCURE, Sprintray; 29min 30C). A milled denture base material (Pink monolithic, Aidite) was milled in a XTWet 5-axis mill (Digital Dental). A denture base repair material (Crosslinked Flash Acrylic, Yates Moltoid), was mixed, placed into a silicone mold, and allowed to self-cure at 37C. Any excess material was removed with 600 grit SiC paper. After 7-day storage in distilled water, the specimens were placed in a universal testing machine on 20mm separated supports and loaded to failure at 1mm/min. The maximum failure load was used to calculate the flexural strength. Data were analyzed with 1-way ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc analysis.
Results: Significant differences were found between materials (p<.05) and statistical differences as determined by Tukey post-hoc analysis are indicated by different letters in the attached table.
Conclusions: Most 3D printed denture base materials achieved significantly great flexural strength than repair acrylic and many achieved statistically similar strength as a reference milled denture base material.