Assessment of the trueness and tissue surface adaptation of CAD-CAM maxillary denture bases manufactured using digital light processing

Statement of problem

Limited information is available evaluating the trueness and tissue surface adaptation of computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) maxillary denture bases fabricated using digital light processing (DLP).

Purpose

The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate the trueness of DLP-fabricated denture bases and to compare the tissue surface adaptation of DLP with milling (MIL) and pack and press (PAP).

Material and methods

The maxillary denture bases were virtually designed on the reference cast and were fabricated using DLP and MIL. Their intaglio surfaces were scanned and superimposed on the reference computer-aided design denture base to evaluate the trueness. A total of 20 denture bases (10 per technique) were also fabricated on the duplicated master casts using DLP and MIL. Ten denture bases were additionally made using PAP. The intaglio surfaces of the dentures were scanned and superimposed on the corresponding casts to compare the degree of tissue surface adaptation among the 3 techniques. The Mann-Whitney test and Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA were used for statistical analyses (α=.05).

Results

The trueness of the DLP denture base was significantly better than that of the MIL denture base (P<.001). Statistically significant differences were detected with respect to tissue surface adaptation of the denture base among the groups (P<.001). The DLP denture base showed the best denture base fit among the 3 techniques with a small interquartile range.

Conclusions

Within the limitations of this in vitro study, the DLP maxillary denture base showed better trueness and tissue surface adaptation of ≤100 μm of the 3-dimensional surface deviation than the MIL and PAP denture bases.