Investigation of the effect of different palatal vault depths on tissue surface adaptation of 3D-printed maxillary denture bases.

Abstract

Purpose: This study investigated the effect of palatal vault depth on the tissue surface adaptation of complete denture bases made with conventional and 3D printing methods.

Materials and methods: A total of 36 maxillary denture bases were fabricated from three edentulous models with different palatal depths (shallow, medium, deep; n = 12 per depth) and were scanned and duplicated in stereolithography format to create 2-mm-thick maxillary denture bases. Two 3D printing techniques, digital light processing (DLP) and liquid crystal display (LCD), were compared with conventional compression molding (CCM) as a control. The intaglio surface of the denture bases was scanned, superimposed onto the models, and a total of 108 superimposing images were obtained. A total of 432 deviation analyses were performed by digitally assessing both the total intaglio surface and three specific regions (palatal vault, crest of the ridge, and border apex). Statistical analysis was conducted using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests (p < 0.05).

Results: On the total intaglio surface, there was no statistically significant difference in deviation values among DLP, LCD, and CCM at any palatal depth (p > 0.05). Statistically significant differences were found between the deviation values according to the three specific regions in all production techniques and at all depths (p < 0.05). In shallow palatal depth, the palatal vault region showed significantly lower deviation in DLP than in LCD and CCM (p < 0.05). The lowest deviation values overall were observed in the palatal vault, while the border apex exhibited the highest.

Conclusions: The DLP technique demonstrated superior adaptation in cases with shallow palatal depth. Among all groups, the highest deviation was noted in the border apex region, underlining the need for extra attention or adjustments in clinical applications. Maxillary denture bases produced using DLP, LCD, and conventional methods showed clinically acceptable adaptation values across different palatal depths. Different production techniques can be used safely at different palatal depths.