"Influence of Fabrication Technique on Microbial Adhesion and Biofilm Formation to Conventional, Milled, and 3D-Printed Resin Denture Base Materials

PMMA for dentures may be processed by conventional techniques like compression moulding or injection moulding with the conventional pack and press technique being considered the 'gold standard' when it comes to processing methods as it has successfully withstood the test of time. With the advent of technology CAD/CAM milling is now being used to mill dentures from pre-polymerized blocks of acrylic resin. At the same time 3D printing/Rapid prototyping technology is also being used to print denture bases with acrylic resins. Both these technologies eliminate the need for conventional flasking and processing methods. The rapid prototyping technique involves serial apposition of resin layers on a custom designed support structure. These layers are hardened by curing with either visible light, UV Light, heat or laser depending upon the technique used. This process is repeated until the designed structure is completely formed. The milling or subtractive technique on the other hand uses pre-polymerized commercially manufactured PMMA blanks (Pucks) which are made under high pressure. This technique allows for the material to have superior mechanical properties.

In reviewing the literature, no clinical studies were performed to compare which method of PMMA denture construction can reduce the amount of microbial colonization while there are a lot of invitro studies was performed.