Investigation of the bond strength between hi̇gh performance polymers and maxillofacial silicone

Mechanical principles and tissue adhesives have been used for many years for the retention of maxillofacial prostheses. With the introduction of the use of osseointegrated implants in the face area, problems related to retention have been reduced. The increase of the use of osteointegrated implants the retention components of prostheses have gained importance. The retaining parts of the extraoral implants are placed into the silicone with a ma-trix. As a new problem, connection problem between matrix and maxillofacial silicone is reported. The aim of this doctorate thesis study was to examine the bond strength of high performance polymers, which were frequently used in researches in the dental field, and the bonding agents produced for these polymers for retaining to maxillofacial silicone. In this study, maxillofacial silicone elastomers which are vulcanized at room tem-perature and 4 different infrastructure materials were used. Infrastructure materials were retained by using two different bonding agents and a combination of them. These infra structure materials are conventional polimetilmetakrilat-PMMA(SS), CAD/CAM PMMA, Polyetheretherkethone-PEEK and Polyetherkethonekethone-PEKK. In addition, PEKK-Bond and Platinum Primer were used as bonding agents. For each infrastructure material, 36 samples were studied. A total of 144 samples were processed which were formed by vulcanization of maxillofacial silicone between 2 cylinders. The circular surfaces of the cylinders facing each other were of different diameters and positioned in a way that they could coincide. SEM analysis was applied to the samples after implementing the tensile test at 5mm/min on the Universal testing machine. Although PMMA(SS) materials provided bonding at different rates in the groups where all bonding agents were applied, CAD/CAM infrastructure materials were only able to bond with the primer bonding agent. PEKKBond did not provided retention in CAD/CAM groups applications. Within the limits of this study, the group in which only the primer was applied to the PMMA(CC) material showed the highest bond strength. CAD/CAM PMMA, PEEK and PEKK polymers with similar bond strength can be used instead of the PMMA(SS) matrix. The use of primer is recommended to increase the bond strength of polymers, whereas the use of PEKKBond for retention is not recommended