Influence of chemical and mechanical polishing on water sorption and solubility of denture base acrylic resins.

Influence of polishing methods on water sorption and solubility of denture base acrylic resins was studied. Eighty samples were divided into groups: Classico (CL), and QC 20 (QC) - hot water bath cured; Acron MC (AC), and Onda Cryl (ON) - microwave cured; and submitted to mechanical polishing (MP) - pumice slurry, chalk powder, soft brush and felt cone in a bench vise; or chemical polishing (CP) - heated monomer fluid in a chemical polisher. The first desiccation process was followed by storage in distilled water at 37 +/- 1 degrees C for 1 h, 1 day, 1, 2, 3 and 4 weeks. Concluding each period, water sorption was measured. After the fourth week, a second desiccation process was done to calculate solubility. Data were submitted to analysis of variance, followed by Tukey test (p<or=0.05). Means of water sorption (%) and solubility (%), respectively, were: CL-MP: 1.92 and 0.02; CL-CP: 1.98 and 0.52; QC-MP: 2.31 and -0.05; QC-CP: 2.32 and 0.25; AC-MP: 2.45 and -0.07; AC-CP: 2.43 and 0.41; ON-MP: 2.32 and -0.06; ON-CP: 2.34 and 0.27. Mechanical polishing promoted significantly lower solubility of acrylic resins; initially, water sorption values were higher for chemically polished samples, however, after 4 weeks all groups were similar.