Comparative Analysis of 3D Printed Denture Resins with Traditional Denture Materials at the Micro Level

Abstract

The aim of this experiment was to evaluate and identify compression strength between traditionally manufactured acrylic dentures and additive manufacturing resin dentures. Specifically, the dentures produced by Uhler Dental, its Reveal line were compared against samples produced on the Formlabs Form 2 SLA, Stereolithography, 3D printer using their Denture Teeth A2 resin to test compression strength to assure they are compatible with the occlusal forces in the oral cavity. Using the ZwickRoell tensile testing machine, it appeared that the acrylic dentures were half as strong as the resin dentures. Then we went ahead to and did a comparative analysis under a microscope to see the micro-properties such as the isotropic uniformity in the resin, layer adhesion, and the microstructure of the two different materials; in general, these two materials appear that resin denture teeth have lesser mean percent porosity values than the acrylic denture teeth. After doing both the compression test and a micro-level analysis under the microscope we have determined that the resin denture has the proper strengths and properties to handle the occlusal forces in a human oral cavity