Bend testing of wrought wire removable partial denture alloys.

The flexibility of the wrought wire clasp is related to a number of factors, including the type and gauge of the alloy. The purpose of this study was to compare the bend behavior of five wrought wire alloys used in removable partial dentures. The alloys and their gauge diameters (in millimeters) were Ticonium (18, 19, 20), platinum-gold-palladium (18, 19), Wironium (18, 20), Jelenko Standard (18, 19, 20), and Denture Clasp (18, 19, 20). A total of 12 to 15 samples of each dental alloy were tested. Three-point bending was performed on a servohydraulic testing system controlled by a computer at 1.00 mm/sec until fracture or actuator contact occurred. Maximum stress and elastic modulus in bending were determined for each gauge diameter. Analysis of variance and post hoc Scheffe statistical analyses revealed significant maximum stress and elastic modulus in bending differences for different alloys of the same gauge and for different gauges of the same alloy. The choice of material and the gauge diameter significantly influenced the mechanical property of bending for wrought wire removable partial denture alloys. The Ticonium alloy had the greatest elastic modulus (stiffest) at all levels and the Denture Clasp and the Jelenko Standard alloys had the lowest elastic modulus (most flexible). These data indicate that knowledge of the bending properties of an alloy is equally as important as the gauge size when selecting a wire clasp.

Light-cured resin for post patterns.

A method of using light-cured acrylic resin as an alternative to the use of chemically-cured acrylic resins with elastomeric impressions for direct post patterns is presented. The GC Unifast LC acrylic resin is a powder/liquid type resin cured by exposure to visible light. The polymerization process has four stages before final curing: slurry, stringy, dough-like (plastic), and rubber-like (elastic). Advantages over current direct and indirect procedures include ease of manipulation of the material and no change in laboratory handling procedures. While in the dough-like state, the material can be contoured. In the rubber-like state, it is flexible to disengage from minor undercut areas.