摘要
Poly （methyl methacrylate） is widely used as denture base material. During fabrication of a denture, the physical and mechanical properties are influenced by cure condition. Each cure cycle or fabrication technique is attempts to optimize the properties for a given application. The aim of this study was to compare two types of commercially available denture base materials （heat-cure and self-cure） in their mechanical properties. The samples were prepared according to the daily routine work for sample preparation in dental laboratories. After reaching dough stage the mix packed into dumbbell shaped of stainless steel mould and pressed in a hydraulic bench press for 25 mins at room temperature. For heat cure the polymerization cycle was carried out using water bath, while self cure was done at room temperature. The impact strength was evaluated using Charpy impact test. The hardness test was conducted using a calibrated Vickers hardness tester machine. The lowest impact strength was observed in self-cure denture base material （self cure material 6.2 kJ/m^2 while heat cure 12.69 kJ/m^2. It appears that the tendency of heat cure to fracture was lower than self-cure denture base materials. Heat cure denture base material has significantly higher hardness test values than self-cure denture base material. The observed VHN value of the heat-cure was 20.09 g/mm^2 while the self-cure value was 12.7 g/mm^2. This is may be due to the plasticizer effect of residual monomer which was higher in self curing material as reported in previous work. Generally, the heat cure material showed better properties compared to self cure material.
