A COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT AND FLEXURAL STRENGTHS OF HIGH IMPACT ACRYLIC RESIN REINFORCED WITH SILANED ZIRCONIUM DIOXIDE AND TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES AND ITS HYBRID COMBINATION - AN INVITRO STUDY

Heat cure acrylic resin is the most widely used material for the fabrication of removable dentures even today. But due to its low fatigue strength and fracture resistance, the dentures tend to flex and can also fracture. With the advancement in nanoscience, nano-sized fillers were found to exhibit improved fracture resistance. Hence in this study both ZrO2(5%) & TiO2(1%) nanoparticles and its hybrid combination (2%) were used to comparatively evaluate the impact and flexural strengths of high impact acrylic resin. A total of 45 specimens were subjected to impact strength testing in an impact tester and flexural strength testing using three point bending test in a Universal testing machine respectively. The present study shows that hybrid reinforcement can be considered a better reinforcement option for enhancing the impact and flexural strengths of acrylic resin