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Pilot in-vitro study on insertion/removal performance of hand-cast, milled and 3D printed splints
Martin Rosentritt1, Michael Behr1, Thomas Strasser1
1Department of Prosthetic Dentistry, UKR University Hospital Regensburg, 93042, Regensburg, Germany.
Objectives:
The aim of this in-vitro pilot study was to establish a splint testing method and compare insertion/removal performance of dental splints.
Materials And Methods:
56 identical lower jaw splints (n = 8 per group) were manufactured from 2x methacrylate (MA) hand-cast (reference material), deep-drawn Polyethyleneterephthalate, combined deep-draw MA hand-cast, 2x CAD/CAM-milled MA and 3D-printed MA systems. After 10 days water storage (37 °C), cyclic pull-off and insertion performance on a metal jaw was investigated. Statistics; Shapiro-Wilk-test, one-way-ANOVA; post-hoc-Bonferroni, Kaplan-Meier-survival, α = 0.05.
Results:
Mean insertion/pull-off cycles varied significantly (p = 0.000) between 864 cycles (MA) and 202640 cycles (Deep Draw MA). Fracture of the splints was characterized by brittle individual fractures in the 31-34 region and most fractures in region 35 (44 of 56 splints). Finite element analysis confirmed the type and location of failure.
Conclusions:
Deep-draw, cast methacrylate and combined systems showed longer insertion/pull-off system cycles in comparison to printed or milled splints. Insertion/pull-off performance showed differences between the tested splint systems and indicates the influence of the processing.
Clinical Relevance:
The presented in-vitro test allowed for estimating the clinical insertion/pull-off performance of dental splints.
