Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) denture base manufacturers claim to produce their resin pucks under high heat and pressure. Therefore, CAD/CAM dentures are assumed to have enhanced mechanical properties and, as a result, are often produced with lower denture base thicknesses than conventional, manually fabricated dentures. The aim of this study was to investigate if commercially available CAD/CAM denture base resins have more favourable mechanical properties than conventionally processed denture base resins. For this purpose, a series of three-point bending tests conforming to ISO specifications were performed on a total of 80 standardised, rectangular CAD/CAM denture base resin specimens from five different manufacturers (AvaDent, Baltic Denture System, Vita VIONIC, Whole You Nexteeth, and Wieland Digital Dentures). A heat-polymerising resin and an autopolymerising resin served as the control groups. The breaking load, fracture toughness, and the elastic modulus were assessed. Additionally, the fracture surface roughness and texture were investigated. Only one CAD/CAM resin showed a significantly increased breaking load. Two CAD/CAM resins had a significantly higher fracture toughness than the control groups, and all CAD/CAM resins had higher elastic moduli than the controls. Our results indicate that CAD/CAM denture base resins do not generally have better mechanical properties than manually processed resins. Therefore, the lower minimum denture base thicknesses should be regarded with some caution.
Keywords: CAD/CAM dentures; PMMA resin; breaking load; complete dentures; dental materials; elastic modulus; fracture toughness.