REINFORCING THE MATERIALS OF DENTURE BASE BY CARBON FIBERS

The present study aims to develop the denture base made of PMMA by enhancing the mechanical and tribological properties. The attrition of the denture base with food and teeth generates electrostatic charge (ESC) that hurts the health of human beings. Therefore, it is essential to use electrically conductive materials to conduct ESC out of mouth. In the present work, PMMA was reinforced by continuous and short carbon fibers to develop its electrical conductivity to mitigate the generated ESC. Besides, friction coefficient and wear tests have been carried out, where the generated voltage was measured at dry and water wet sliding. The present experiments showed that wear decreased with increasing carbon fibers content as result of the lubrication and strengthening effect of carbon fibers. Besides, wear at water wet sliding showed relatively higher values than that observed for dry sliding. Short fibers reinforcing PMMA showed higher friction values than that determined for continuous fibers where at water wet sliding, friction coefficient showed higher friction than dry sliding. Finally, voltage difference drastically decreased as the content of carbon fibers increased due to their good electrical conductivity that conducted the generated ESC out of the contact surface. Water wet sliding displayed lower voltage values than dry sliding. Short fibers recorded lower voltage difference than that observed for continuous fibers due to their better distribution in the PMMA matrix.