Effect of Cigarette Smoke on Surface Roughness of Different Denture Base Materials

Surface roughness is an important property of denture bases since denture bases are in contact with oral tissues and a rough surface may affect tissues health due to microorganism accumulation. Therefore, the effect of cigarette smoke on the surface roughness of two commercially available denture base materials was evaluated to emphasize which type has superior properties for clinical use.

A total numbers of 40 specimens were constructed from two commercially available denture base materials; heat-cured PMMA and visible light cured UDMA resins (20 for each). The specimens for each type were randomly divided into: Group I: Heat cured resin control group; Group II: Heat cured acrylic resin specimens exposed to cigarette smoking; Group III: Light cured resin control group; Group IV: Light cured resin specimens exposed to cigarette smoking. The control groups used for immersion in distilled water and the smoke test groups used for exposure to cigarette smoking. The smoke test groups specimens were exposed to smoking in a custom made smoking chamber by using 20 cigarettes for each specimen. The surface roughness was measured by using Pocket SurfPS1 profilometer and the measurements considered as the difference between the initial and final roughness measured before and after smoking.

The t-test for paired observation of test specimens after exposure to smoking was indicated significant change in surface roughness for Group II (p< 0.05) but has no significance with Group IV. Otherwise, there were no significant differences with control groups (Group I and III).

The surface roughness of the dentures constructed from heat cured acrylic resin had been increased after exposure to cigarette smoke but had no impact on the dentures constructed from visible light cured resin.