Background: Maxillofacial prostheses made of medical grade silicone elastomers are routinely used to replace facial parts lost through disease or trauma. The most serious problems encountered with silicone include: discoloration of the prosthesis; deterioration of its physical and mechanical properties; difficulties related to the repair process; and a relatively short service life of the prosthesis. Fillers are nanosized particles added to the silicon elastomer to improve the physical and mechanical properties. Fillers fulfill the task of supporting the cross-linked matrix by diffusing to the matrix. Recent studies have shown that nanoparticles can be extrinsically coated on the surface of maxillofacial silicone elastomer A-2186.
The aim: To assess the bond between the maxillofacial silicone elastomer and the surface coated nanoparticles with fourier transform infrared spectroscopy.
Material and methods: The silicon elastomer was mixed and polymerized. It was divided into two groups; group I with no titanium dioxide nanoparticles and group II with extrinsically coated titanium dioxide nanoparticles. As for group II, the elastomer was subjected to oxygen plasma treatment, afterwards it was dipped into 10% APTES solution. 30% Zein solution was prepared for the dispersion of 2.5% titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The polymerized elastomer was then dipped into the Zein/titanium dioxide nanoparticles solution for 48 hours.
Bond evaluation was carried out through Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy.
Results: FTIR graph analysis showed the same peaks for group I and group II.
Conclusion: An incomplete chemical bond between the silicon elastomer surface and the titanium dioxide nanoparticles.
Keywords: A-2186 silicone elastomer, extrinsic coating, FTIR.