Abstract
Purpose: Life-threatening choking or severe aspiration pneumonia due to unnoticed dislodging of dentures and provisional restoration materials (PRM) can develop in those who have poor swallowing or coughing function, such as frail elderly people or patients managed under anesthesia or sedation with or without an artificial airway. Dentists and healthcare workers are increasingly criticized for incidents associated with unnoticed dental dislodging. While dentists in general should make every effort to prevent unnoticed dislodging of PRM, dental anesthesiologists should pay special attention to prevent the development of life-threatening conditions. It is therefore imperative to develop measures to add radiopaqueness to PRM.
Materials and Methods: We tried mixing various proportions of nano zirconia powder with self-cured acrylic resins and tested their physical and dental material properties including radiopaqueness, anti-bending strength, initial polymerizing times and Vickers hardness.
Results: Nano zirconia containing self-cured acrylic resin showed radiopaqueness in a dose-dependent manner, however, durability tended to decrease and initial polymerizing time tended to increase.
Conclusions: It was concluded that 30-40 wt% of nano zirconia containing self-cured acrylic resin produces appropriate radiopaqueness with little compromise of the dental material properties required of PRM, and further development for its clinical application is warranted.
