Water sorption and solubility of temporary soft materials for denture base relining

Abstract

Tissue conditioners and temporary denture liners are short-term resilient materials widely used in restorative dental clinic for surgical wound protection, stabilizing dentures, conditioning of tissues, reline temporary denture during the osseointegration of implants, functional molding and treatment of denture stomatitis. As its components are based on acrylic resin, these materials have high water sorption and solubility rapidly losing its softness and thus the comfort provided to the patient. There are no international standards to determine acceptable limits of these important properties for temporary resilient materials and the comparison between the few studies available related is hampered by differences in the methodology. Thus, it was considered appropriate to evaluate water sorption and solubility of four temporary resilient materials commercially available for different periods of immersion in water over its useful life. Two tissue conditioners (Softone and Coe-Comfort) and two temporary resilient denture liners (Trusoft and Coe-Soft) will be tested. Circular specimens (50 x 0.5 mm) of the tested materials will be individually made independently and submitted to desorption until stabilization of the weights. Then, they will immerse in distilled water at 37°C for 3, 5, 7 or 14 days to be weighed, dried and reweighed. The data of water sorption and solubility percentages will be statistically analyzed (± = 0.05).