Wettability of Heat Cured Acrylic Resin Interlaciated With Recycled Poly Methyl Methacrylate: An In Vitro Study.

Aim: This study was conducted to improve the wettability of heat cured acrylic resin by the incorporation of recycled poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) as well as the assessment of how different aging times affected it.

Materials and methods: A total of 40 heat cured resin specimens were prepared and randomly divided into: The study and the control groups. Recycled PMMA was added to the study group at 1%, 3%, and 5% concentrations by volume. The wettability of control and study group specimens was assessed after being aged for different aging times by the assessment of wetting angle utilizing a sessile drop method and Image J analysis software. The collected data were analyzed statistically using IBM^® Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (Armonk, NY, USA) version 23. Shapiro-Wilk, one-way analysis of variance, and Tukey's post hoc tests were employed for the statistical analysis at P ≤ 0.05.

Results: The addition of recycled PMMA significantly improves the wettability of acrylic resin (P ≤ 0.05). The aging process had a significant impact on the wettability of control and study groups. The wettability of control and study groups increased with aging and this increase was directly associated with the aging time till 1 year of aging, their wettability started to decline although it remained less than that after 1 month of aging.

Conclusion: It has been concluded that the incorporation of recycled PMMA significantly improves the wettability heat cured acrylic resin. The wettability of the aged control and study group was significantly affected by aging times.