Abstract
Maxillofacial prosthetic treatment with obturator prostheses has contributed to improvements in speech, mastication, swallowing, and early return of patients to society. To establish more effective maxillofacial prosthetic treatment, it is desirable to develop a new material with high reproducibility of the detailed shape of maxillary defects, high adaptability to tissue changes over time, and high biocompatibility. This study focused on shape memory gel （SMG）. SMG has unique properties: it softens when heated, maintains its shape when cooled, and returns to its original shape when reheated. The aim was to evaluate the physical properties of SMG for dental application. Specimens were prepared by changing the polymerization initiator camphorquinone （CQ） and the mixing ratio of the two monomers stearyl acrylate （SA） and lauryl acrylate （LA） of SMG, and the memory properties were examined. Switching the polymerization initiator of SMG to CQ enabled polymerization with dental photopolymerization devices. Changing the combination ratio of SA to LA enabled adjustment of the tensile strength. It was confirmed that the shape memory property, an original characteristic of SMG, was maintained, and physical properties similar to those of existing dental materials were obtained.
