Comparative wear characteristics of some modern dental materials due to the main physical characteristics during the masticatory process

Abstract

Aim and objective: To design a simple low weight and energy consumption chewing machine, able to implement main characteristics of the masticatory process during testing and study some modern materials from various groups: polymers, composites, and metals. Materials and methods: A chewing machine that allowed imitating to a high degree of approximation to the real masticatory process in an abrasive medium the movement of test dental crowns made of polymers PEEK and PMMA, metals ZrO2 and Zirconia Prettau, and composites Trinia and Ambarino was designed for research. Dental crowns made of the test material were glued to incisal pins, which were screwed into the rods fixed on the carriage. The lower rods with the attached incisal pins and dental crowns were placed in a container with abrasive material. The carriage, alongside the rods and incisal pins with crowns, performed the reciprocating motion, for which a slider-crank mechanism with an electric drive was used. The press force on the test samples during each cycle was controlled using strain-gauge instrumentation and recorded in the computer memory. Results: It was found that at the end of the study, the difference between relative changes before and after the experiment in the weight of dental crowns made of Trinia composite was 5.32% less than dental crowns made of Ambarino; PMMA polymer was 6.057% less than dental crowns made of PEEK; zirconium dioxide ZrO2 was 0.46% less than dental crowns made of Prettau zirconium. Conclusion: An effective design of low energy consumption and weight chewing machine has been developed, which helped to study the wear resistance of some widely used materials. Clinical significance: The research findings allow a more reasonable approach to the choice of materials to develop various dental structures.