THE LEVEL OF RESIDUAL MONOMER IN INJECTION MOLDED DENTURE BASE MATERIALS

Statement of Problem: The residual monomer of denture base materials causes hypersensitivity on oral mucosa and intereferes with the mechanical properties of the cured resin. The amount of residual monomer is influenced by materials, curing cycle, processing method, and etc. Purpose: The aim of this study was to investigate the residual methyl methacrylate(MMA) content of injection molded denture base polymer, and to compare this with the self-cured resin and the conventional compression molded heat-cured resin. Materials and Methods: Disc shaped test specimens (50mm in diameter and 3mm thick) were prepared in a conventional flasking technique with gypsum molding. One autopolymerized denture base resins (Vertex Sc. Dentimex. Netherlands) and two heat-cured denture base resins (Vertex RS. Dentimex. Netherlands, Ivocap. Ivoclar Vivadent, USA) were used. The three types of specimens were processed according to the manufacturer's instruction. After polymerization, all specimens were stored in the dark at room temperature for 7 days. There were 10 specimens in each of the test groups. 3-mm twist drills were used to obtain the resin samples and 650mg of the drilled sample were collected for each estimation. Gas chromatography (Agillent 6890 Plus Gas Chromatograph, Agillent Co, USA) was used to determine the residual MMA content of 10 test specimens of each three types of polymer. Results: The residual monomer content of injection molded denture base resins was $1.057{\pm}0.141%$. The residual monomer content of injection molded denture base resins was higher than that of compression molded heat cured resin ($0.867{\pm}0.169%$). However, there was no statistical significant difference between two groups (p>0.01). The level of residual monomer in self cured resin($3.675{\pm}0.791$) was higher than those of injection molded and compression molded heat cured resins (p<0.01). Conclusion: With respect to ISO specification pass / fail test (2.2% mass fraction) of residual monomer, injection molding technique($1.057{\pm}0.141%$) is a clinically useful and safe technique in terms of residual monomer.