Closed Repair Technique: Innovative Surface Design for Polymethylmethacrylate Denture Base Repair

Purpose This study aimed to evaluate the repair strength of a newly introduced repair technique involving zero-gap repair width. Materials and Methods A total of 36 rectangular prism specimens with dimensions of 64 x 10 x 3.3 mm were prepared from heat-polymerized acrylic resin. Nine specimens were kept intact. The other specimens were sectioned into halves and modified to create repair gaps of 2.5-mm beveled (2.5B) as control, 0-mm beveled (ZB), and 0-mm inverse bi-beveled (ZIBB). The ZIBB group was prepared with a V-shaped internal groove on both halves (repair tunnel), while the intaglio and cameo surfaces were kept intact except for two small holes at the cameo surface for repair resin injection. The 2.5B and ZB groups were repaired conventionally while the ZIBB group was repaired by injecting repair resin into the tunnel through one of the holes until excess material oozed from the other hole. Repaired specimens were thermally cycled at 5 and 55 degrees C for 10,000 cycles with 1 min dwell time. A 3-point bending test was conducted using a universal testing machine for flexural strength and elastic modulus measurement. Kruskal-Wallis/Mann-Whitney tests and ANOVA/post hoc Tukey tests were applied for data analysis (alpha = 0.05). Results The flexural strength of repaired specimens was substantially lower than that of intact specimens, and significant differences were present between repaired groups (p < 0.05). ZB and ZIBB had higher flexural strength (p < 0.001) and elastic modulus (p < 0.05) than 2.5B. Among the ZB and ZIBB groups, ZB showed the highest flexural strength, and ZIBB had the highest elastic modulus. Conclusion The closed repair technique improved the flexural strength and elastic modulus of repaired acrylic denture base.