International Journal of Scientific Study

Review Article

Polyamides in Dentistry
Shivani Kohli1, Shekhar Bhatia2
1 MDS Lecturer, Department of Prosthodontics, MAHSA University, Kuala lumpur, Malaysia. 2 MDS Lecturer, Department of
Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, MAHSA University, Kuala lumpur, Malaysia.

Abstract
Thermoplastic resins have been used in dentistry for over 50 years. Since that time their
applications have continued to grow, and the interest in nylon based materials have increased. With the
development of new properties, there are certain to be additional new applications for thermoplastic
resins in the future, to help patients with damaged or missing teeth. The dentists have to meet growing
demands for prosthetic rehabilitation due to population aging and higher requirements on the quality of
life. Herein in this article we will be discussing in detail properties of nylon based materials and their
various implications in dentistry.
Keywords: Nylon, Injection molded, Denture, Resin

Introduction:
Thermoplastic resins have been used in
dentistry for a very long period of time. These resins
may be repeatedly softened by heating and hardened
by cooling without undergoing a chemical change.
They may be considered as being composed of
bundles of chainlike molecules (called polymers) of
many different lengths and molecular weights. They
can be broadly classified as thermoplastic acetal,
thermoplastic polycarbonates, thermoplastic acrylic
and thermoplastic nylon.1
Thermoplastic acetal as a homo-polymer has
good short term mechanical properties, but as a
copolymer, acetal has better long-term stability.
These resins resist occlusal wear and are well suited
for maintaining vertical dimension during
provisional restorative therapy. While stronger,
acetal does not have the natural translucency and
vitality of thermoplastic acrylic and polycarbonate,
thus these materials might offer better results only
for short term temporary restorations. Thermoplastic
polycarbonates are a polymer chain of bisphenol-A
20

carbonate. Polycarbonates are ideally suited for

provisional crowns and bridges but not suitable for
partial denture frameworks.
Thermoplastic acrylic has been used in
dentistry for many years in the form of temporary
crowns and thermal polymerized as baseplate
material for partial and complete dentures. Thermal
polymerized PMMA demonstrates high porosity,
high water absorption, volumetric changes and
residual monomer. They have poor impact
resistance, tensile and flexural strength for a variety
of applications. Thus, improvised thermoplastic
nylon can be a useful alternative to
polymethylmethacrylate in special circumstances
where higher flexibility, higher resistance to flexural
fatigue, higher impact strength is required.2
Although clinician's skills and experience play
a major role in designing and fabricating an optimum
prosthodontic restoration, the selection of denture
resins is equally important, especially when the
patient has to use the prostheses for long period of
time.3 Nylon polyamides were first introduced in the
construction of denture bases in 1950s.4 Nylon is a
generic name used for certain types of thermoplastic
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Review Article
polymers belonging to the class known as
polyamides. Nylon polyamide was developed as a
result of the classic research of W.H. Carothers and
associates of the Du Pont Chemical Co. of America,
carried out during the companys search for a
synthetic fiber forming material (1928
1938).5These polyamides are produced by the
condensation reactions between a diamine and a
dibasic acid. The use of nylon as a denture base
material has been described in the literatures in the
1950s.5-7
In
1950s
as
compared
to
polymethylmethacrylate, nylon material were
rugged, less rigid, highly resilient, resistant to
abrasion and practically unbreakable. However due
to certain disadvantages of the early forms of nylon
polyamides such as tendency of base color to
deteriorate, stain, high water sorption, development
of surface roughness after a few weeks wear and
difficulty in processing, its use was restricted to
limited conditions such as repeated denture fractures,
proven allergy to polymethylmethacrylate, lack of
neuromuscular coordination and construction of
orthodontic appliances.8-10
In order to overcome these shortcomings,
Nylon with relatively low water sorption levels and
melting points, were developed. It was further
modified by reinforcement with glass fiber10 and
glass spheres5 to increase its potential use as a
denture base material. This improvised material
showed better strength, stiffness, dimensional
stability and lower water sorption. With the progress
in technology and understanding of material,
improvised nylon polyamides have surpassed its
limitations and are finding novel applications in the
fabrication of removable partial dentures, small to
medium sized complete dentures, occlusal splints
etc. Their usage as denture base material is still
limited due to limited facilities and lack of
knowledge of these materials. Herein in this article
we will be discussing in detail the properties of
nylon based materials and their various implications
in dentistry.

21

Properties
Physical Properties of the Nylons
Nylon is a crystalline polymer whereas
polymethyl methacrylate is amorphous. Thus in solid
nylon there is more or less ordered parallel packing
of the long chain molecule which is due to strong
attractive forces between the chains. This
crystrallinity account for the nylon characteristics of
lack of solubility in solvents, high heat resistance,
and high strength coupled with ductility. The
outstanding features of the nylons are their
toughness, low density, abrasion resistance, higher
melting point and resistance to chemical attack.
Since nylon is insoluble in almost all common
solvents it cannot be dough moulded by usual dental
techniques, but molten material must be injected into
the flask under pressure. The high mould shrinkage
is a serious issue. The flexibility coupled with its
strength, enables it to resist all normal attempts to
fracture. Previous workers have criticized the
flexibility of nylon on the basis that this flexibility
can lead to uneven loading of the supporting mucosa
and bone particularly in the mandible.4,5,11
Mechanical Properties of the Nylon
The chief advantage of nylon lies in exceptional
mechanical properties of resistance to shock and
repeated stressing, it has higher fatigue resistance
compared to PMMA. Nylon has higher fatigue
resistance than polymethyl methacrylate, although
no comparative data under mouth conditions are yet
available.5 Though nylon has superior mechanical
properties than any other non metallic base yet there
are some serious limitations such as processing
difficulties and dimensional changes.12,13 The chief
advantages of nylon denture bases are strength and
lightness. The ultimate tensile strength of nylon
AI00/M is 10,000-11,500lb./sq. in. as compared with
7,000-8,000 ib./sq. in. for acrylic. This makes
skeleton denture designs, which would be
impracticable if made in acrylic, a feasible
proposition when made with nylon. It has higher
abrasion resistance, elastic memory, creep resistance
and is conductive to cyclic stress.5,12These denture
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base resins have lower flexural strength at the
proportional limit, low elastic moduli along with
good fracture resistance.14,15
Dimensional Changes
Nylon is hygroscopic, its moisture content varies
slowly with the surrounding conditions. On
immersion in water the material swells, i.e. there is
linear expansion.5 Processing the denture base
materials produced unequal deformation in different
dimensions (anterior-posterior and cross-arch). The
magnitude of this dimensional change depends on
the conditions of moulding, shape of the mould, and
direction in which it is measured.13
Thermal Properties, Bacterial Growth, Staining
Nylon has low coefficient of linear expansion
and galvanic conductance.5,12 According to Abuzar et
al polyamide denture base material when polished
with conventional laboratory technique became more
smoother than PMMA when using the same
polishing technique. However the surface roughness
of polyamide was well within the accepted norm and
was clinically acceptably smooth after conventional
polishing by lathe.16 It seems likely that at least part
of the surface roughness may be due to growth of
bacterial plaques on the surface of the nylon. In few
cases smear layer were made from surface scrapings
of the nylon denture bases and of the acrylic teeth on
the bases which resulted in clinically noticeable
staining.4,6,10,17,18
The highest Candida species biofilm growth was
shown to occur on polyamide resin when compared
with PMMA.19Although flexible resins present
advantages in terms of esthetics and comfort, studies
assessing chromatic and micro hardness alterations
of these materials are still scarce in the related
literature.20
Flexibility
Flexibility is a property, possessed by nylon,
which is not usually considered to be advantageous
in denture base materials. It can, however, prove to
22

be a useful property in certain types of partial

dentures while being unsuitable for other types.
The flexibility of nylon varies greatly depending
on the type of moulding powder used, temperature of
injection, pressure of injection surplus nylon
remaining in the cylinder after injection was found to
be brittle. This was attributed to the fact that it had
not been under pressure when it set. More recent
grades of nylon with low water absorption have
proved to be more flexible. It may be worth
mentioning that full dentures made of nylon are not
flexible since they are usually too thick to display
this property.6
It was found that clasps made of nylon had to
be rather bulky in order to function efficiently. Thin
clasps which were adequate for retention when the
denture was first fitted tended to warp away from the
teeth after a few weeks wear. This was probably due
to slow release of strains which had been induced
during moulding. Owing to the flexibility of the base
it was possible to utilize undercuts, for retention,
which would normally have to be blocked out on an
acrylic or metal base. 6
Thermoplastic
resins
for
non-metal
clasp dentures exhibiting low water sorption and
solubility offer hygienic advantages. Since they have
a low modulus of elasticity and are easily
manipulated, these materials make it possible for
larger undercuts to be used for retention compared to
acrylic resin.18
Flexibility can be advantageous in conditions
when the buccal undercut on the maxillary tuberosity
are present together with reduced width of the buccal
vestibule.21 Patient with systemic sclerosis and those
who suffers from scarring in the oral and facial areas
due to disease, trauma, or burning injuries, it is
determined that long-term comfort and function
could be achieved only through the use of a flexible
removable partial denture.22 Nylon is also an
effective method for correcting gingival recession by
fabricating a flexible gingival epithesis. However,
discoloration of the epithesis still remains a
problem.23

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Comparison between injection moulded and
compression-moulded resins:
Nylon has unusual injection moulding
characteristics since it melts sharply at a relatively
high temperature to a mobile liquid in contrast to the
more usual behavior of most other thermoplastics
which display a gradual softening over a broad
temperature range to a viscous fluid. Little increase
in mobility of the melt is obtained by heating nylon
above its melting point. For the same reason the
material has been employed in the solid state, thus
reducing the inclusion of air which occurs when
granules are used. The mobility of molten nylon is
the reason why heavy injection pressure is not
necessary.5,6,13 It is interesting to note that injectionmolded resins were more resilient than their
compression-molded counterparts. Injection-molded
resins generally require a greater monomer content
to improve flow characteristics and facilitate filling
of the mold cavity. This often results in additional
unreacted monomer within a polymerized resin. In
turn, the unreacted monomer may serve as a
plasticizer, thereby increasing the resiliency of the
polymerized denture base resin. The increased
amounts of unreacted monomer may account for at
least part of the resiliency in the injection-molded
resins. The completeness of polymerization is
significant for 2 major reasons; firstly, the degree of
polymerization affects the mechanical and geometric
properties of resultant prostheses. Second, unreacted
monomer may produce undesirable effects in the
human body. Consequently, resins displaying greater
degrees of polymerization may provide substantial
clinical advantages.13 The injection molding
technique also provides a long working time before
polymerization was complete, and this helps to
improve the penetration of resin into space between
fibres.11,24,25
Failures of Nylon as Denture Base
They can therefore be ascribed due to the
following causes; the material has a very high water
sorption and is rather flexible. Processing conditions
are generally far from optimum, particularly mould
temperature and injection pressure.10
23

Improvements in nylons necessary for intra-oral

potential
Processing must be under precise control, since
the sensitivity of polyamides to method of molding
can give up to a 50 percent variation in crystallinity,
which markedly affects the mechanical properties. In
1962 there was a further advance in the polyamide
field with the introduction of glass reinforcement of
base nylon, of the short-fibres types. The success
of this has been largely due to the silane-treatment of
the glass fibres so that the bonding occurs with the
base material. Both the strength and the stiffness are
increased, the tensile strength being doubled and the
modulus of elasticity becoming three and half times
greater. The coefficient of linear expansion is
reduced to a quarter of its previous value and this
would enhance dimensional stability both in
processing and in use. The water sorption value is
lowered by a diluent effect to 1.2 percent.10
According to Katsumata et al silica-coating by
Rocatec system was effective in improving the bond
strength of nylon denture base polymer to
autopolymerizing repair resin.26 Polyamide has some
attractive advantages, but will require modification
to produce consistently better properties than current
PMMA materials.15
Dental applications for thermoplastic resins
Current dental applications for thermoplastics resins
originally involve:27,28
1. Preformed partial denture clasp
2. Flexible tooth born partial denture framework
3. Single cast partial dentures
4. Temporary crowns and bridges
5. Gum veneers
6. Space maintainers
7. Immediate dentures
8. Replacement of missing teeth in pediatric cases
9. Precision attachment
10. Combination with metal framework
11. Occlusal appliances
12. Implant abutments
13. Orthodontic and sleep apnea appliances
14. TMJ appliances
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Conclusion

References:

The dentists today have to meet growing

demands for prosthetic rehabilitation due to
population aging and higher requirements on the
quality of life. That means higher demands on the
functional reliability of dental appliances, their
aesthetical and biological properties. Dental research
teams and industry are looking for new materials
with properties very similar to natural oral tissues,
requiring simple handling. The new materials
involve new technologies and devices which are
being introduced into practical dental work from
cosmic and other hi-tech projects. Modern
technologies bring both expensive systems
(ceramics, titanium, dental implants), and costsaving solutions (plastic materials). The offer of
materials and technologies is continuously growing
on the dental market. Time and practical experience
will help us in the choice of the best-quality
materials and working procedures for prosthetic
rehabilitation.
Thermoplastic resins have been used in
dentistry for many years. During that time the
applications have continued to grow and the interest
in these materials by both the profession and the
public have increased. The materials have superior
properties and characteristics and provide excellent
esthetic and biocompatible treatment options. With
the development of new properties, there are certain
to be additional new applications for thermoplastic
resin in the future, to help patients with damaged or
missing teeth.29

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15. Ucar Y, Akova T, Aysan I. Mechanical
Properties
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25

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Corresponding Author
Dr. Shivani Kohli
Department of Prosthodontics, MAHSA
University, Kuala lumpur, Malaysia
Email id: [email protected]

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