JOURNAL OF MATERIALS ENGINEERING AND PERFORMANCE, cilt.30, sa.9, ss.6722-6731, 2021 (SCI-Expanded)
Removable dentures (RDs) are mostly used to replace missing teeth, increase patients' oral function, esthetic, and phonetics, and restore lost residual ridge, for the maintenance of oral health. The main reasons often preferred for RDs are a cleaning, cost-effective manner, and popular treatment option for edentulous or partially edentulous patients. Unfortunately, the fracture of RDs is a common complication which occurs frequently as a result of fatigue failure by strong masticatory forces and also accidental damage. This causes concerns for patients in terms of stress, cost, and embarrassment. Therefore, a variable number of approaches to prevent the incidence of fracture have been used including the strengthening of acrylic resin and reinforcing the base of dentures. To enhance the fracture resistance and dimensional stability, metal bases and frameworks have been frequently incorporated into the dentures. However, the design of these frameworks is challenging and so requires experience for minimizing potential inaccuracy. In the current study, considering the developments in additive manufacturing technology, metal bases and frameworks were produced in lattice according to nine different unit cell models, compared with the traditional method by destructive and non-destructive experiments. According to the current data, vertical struts in lattice structures are significant in terms of tensile strength. Thus, it is important to choose the unit cell to be used for metal bases and frameworks in RDs. In addition, pores did not have a significant effect on tension resistance, but micro-cracks had a significant effect on lattice structures. The RDs produced with body diagonals with nodes from lattice structures resulted in an average of 160% more resistance to stretching than the RDs produced by the traditional casting method, in a similar density.