An In Vitro Comparative Study of Maxillary Denture Base Retention Between Conventional Fabrication and 3D Printed Techniques

Abstract

Objective: Many researchers have attempted to assess 3D printing as a manufacturing method to be used as an alternative for the conventional means. The current study aimed to determine the feasibility of 3D printed complete dentures in terms of retention. Methods: An edentulous maxillary model with an overlaying layer of mucosa was fabricated by 3D printing, using two different resins for the mucosa and model, which were then glued together to establish the final model. Afterwards, 8 single step putty and wash impressions were recorded with addition silicone. Each impression was scanned with a laboratory scanner. From each impression a stone cast was fabricated on which a conventional baseplate was constructed by heat polymerized PMMA with the pack and press technique. Meanwhile, from the 8 STL files of the scanned impressions, 8 baseplates were designed and printed with the denture base resin. Next, each of the 16 baseplates were connected to a loop at their center. Finally, the retentive value of all baseplates was measured by means of the universal testing machine. A statistical analysis was performed to evaluate the significance of retentive difference between the two groups. Results: The statistical analysis revealed that the printed dentures were significantly more retentive than the conventional, with a pvalue of less than 0.029 and mean values of 15.0462 N and 12.05 N respectively. Conclusions: This study concluded that 3D printed complete dentures were significantly more retentive than the conventionally fabricated dentures