Two Body Wear of Newly Introduced Nanocomposite Teeth and Cross Linked Four Layered Acrylic Teeth: a Comparitive In Vitro Study

Statement of Problem: Wear of complete denture teeth results in compromise in denture esthetics and functions. To counteract this problem, artificial teeth with increased wear resistance had been introduced in the market such as nanocomposite teeth. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare the amount of wear between nanocomposite teeth and acrylic teeth. Materials and methods: Fifteen specimens were chosen from each group namely the nanocomposite teeth (SR_-PHONARES) and the acrylic teeth (ACRY PLUS). Maxillary premolar was only chosen for testing and the samples were customized according to the specifications of the pin on disc machine. Pin on disc machine is a two body tribometer which quantifies the amount of wear under a specific load and time. Test samples were mounted on to the receptacle of the pin on disc machine and tested under a load of 0.3 kg for 1,000 cycles of rotation against a 600 grit emery paper. The amount of wear is displayed from the digital reading obtained from the pin on disc machine. Results: After statistical analysis, it was found that, the amount of wear is more in four layered acrylic teeth. The p value obtained is 0.002 (<0.005) thus implies that the difference in wear between nanocomposite teeth and acrylic teeth is statistically significant. Conclusion: Though the nanocomposite teeth has less amount of wear than the four layered acrylic teeth, the difference is very less and adds only to a little clinical significance but the cost of the nanocomposite is four times that of the acrylic teeth. Further clinical studies must be performed to confirm our results.