Influence of base design on the manufacturing accuracy of vat-polymerized diagnostic casts: An in vitro study.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM:Vat-polymerized casts can be designed with different bases, but the influence of the base design on the accuracy of the casts remains unclear. PURPOSE:The purpose of the present in vitro study was to evaluate the influence of various base designs (solid, honeycombed, and hollow) with 2 different wall thicknesses (1 mm and 2 mm) on the accuracy of vat-polymerized diagnostic casts. MATERIAL AND METHODS:A virtual maxillary cast was obtained and used to create 3 different base designs: solid (S group), honeycombed (HC group), and hollow (H group). The HC and H groups were further divided into 2 subgroups based on the wall thickness of the cast designed: 1 mm (HC-1 and H-1) and 2 mm (HC-2 and H-2) (N=50, n=10). All the specimens were manufactured with a vat-polymerized printer (Nexdent 5100) and a resin material (Nexdent Model Ortho). The linear and 3D discrepancies between the virtual cast and each specimen were measured with a coordinate measuring machine. Trueness was defined as the mean of the average absolute dimensional discrepancy between the virtual cast and the AM specimens and precision as the standard deviation of the dimensional discrepancies between the virtual cast and the AM specimens. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests revealed that the data were not normally distributed. The data were analyzed with Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney U pairwise comparison tests (α=.05). RESULTS:The trueness ranged from 63.73 μm to 77.17 μm, and the precision ranged from 44.00 μm to 54.24 μm. The Kruskal-Wallis test revealed significant differences on the x- (P<.001), y- (P=.006), and z-axes (P<.001) and on the 3D discrepancy (P<.001). On the x-axis, the Mann-Whitney test revealed significant differences between the S and H-1 groups (P<.001), S and H-2 groups (P<.001), HC-1 and H-1 groups (P<.001), HC-1 and H-2 groups (P<.001), HC-2 and H-1 groups (P<.001), and HC-2 and H-2 groups (P<.001); on the y-axis, between the S and H-1 groups (P<.001), HC-1 and H-1 groups (P=.001), HC-1 and H-2 groups (P=.02), HC-2 and H-1 groups (P<.001), HC-2 and H-2 groups (P=.003); and on the z-axis, between the S and H-1 groups (P=.003). For the 3D discrepancy analysis, significant differences were found between the S and H-1 groups (P<.001), S and H-2 groups (P=.004), HC-1 and H-1 groups (P=.04), and HC-2 and H-1 groups (P=.002). CONCLUSIONS:The base designs tested influenced the manufacturing accuracy of the diagnostic casts fabricated with a vat-polymerization printer, with the solid and honeycombed bases providing the greatest accuracy. However, all the specimens were clinically acceptable.