Abstract
Maxillary obturator prostheses are dental devices used to close palatal defects created by surgical resection of different type of tumors, congenital malformation or trauma. The most popular material used for denture fabrication is the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). In recent years thermoplastic resins has attracted attention as a denture base material. This paper presents experimental compression and traction tests of VertexTMThermoSense from Vertex-Dental B.V. VertexTMThermoSense is a thermoplastic material based on a compounded mixture of Polyamide and pigments used in the fabrication of removable full and partial dental prostheses. Test results show that the average compressive yield strength of the samples is 60.18 MPa. The result of the tensile test showed an average of 49.4 MPa yield strength. VertexTMThermoSense has a very good average of the yield strain of 10%. The average of Young modulus is 1050 MPa.
Keywords: obturator prosthesis; thermoplastic materials; compressive strength; tensile strength