Two-body wear of resin and ceramic denture teeth in comparison to human enamel.

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the two-body wear resistance of different artificial denture teeth when opposed to steatite ceramic balls in a dual-axis chewing simulator. METHODS Artificial denture teeth including the ceramic tooth Bonartic CT, the composite resin tooth Condyloform II NFC, the acrylic resin teeth Bonartic TCR, Orthognath, Polystar Selection, SR Orthotyp DCL, and Vitapan Cuspiform, and human maxillary premolars were tested in a chewing simulator. Wear resistance was analyzed measuring vertical substance loss and volume loss using profilometry and an optical macroscope after various chewing cycles (49N, up to 1,200,000 cycles). Data were statistically analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by the Fisher test (LSD) at p< or =0.05. RESULTS After 1,200,000 chewing cycles the mean vertical substance loss and volume loss for the composite resin teeth (117microm and 0.144mm3) were significantly lower than for all acrylic resin teeth (149-166microm and 0.220-0.292mm3) (p< or =0.05), but higher than for ceramic teeth (36microm and 0.029mm3) and for enamel (56microm and 0.033mm3) (p< or =0.05). No significant differences were found among the acrylic resin teeth for both parameters (p>0.05). SIGNIFICANCE The composite resin showed improved in vitro two-body wear resistance compared to modern acrylic resin denture teeth; however, it showed less wear resistance than ceramic teeth and human enamel. Ceramic teeth should be preferred over natural teeth when occlusal stability is considered a high priority.