dental professionals

patient information

technical specification

Just as important as the way in which enigmalife+ teeth restore the beauty of your patient’s appearance is the way in which they have been "designed for living". Along with appearance, the most important requirement of patients is for their dentures to help them to eat their favourite foods in comfort and without anxiety. enigmalife+ dentures will serve them for many years since they have improved durability.

enigmalife+ teeth have been specially designed to take into account the real conditions in the mouth. Since different areas of the mouth subject denture teeth to different forces one composition for all teeth is no longer a sufficient solution.

At the front of the mouth teeth come under lateral forces and can chip but rarely wear. They need to have high resistance against chemical attack and minimise plaque adhesion or discolouration. enigmalife anteriors are therefore made using a tough PMMA based copolymer using a double polymerisation process and incorporating PMMA pearls.

At the back of the mouth teeth will wear but rarely chip. enigmalife posteriors have addressed this through a tough composite formulation combining a double cross linked acrylate copolymer, UDMA resin, nano hybrid fillers and PMMA pearls. Resilience in the anteriors and incredible wear resistance in the posteriors.

 

enigmalife+ composite posterior teeth

The high quality, strength and wear characteristics of enigmalife+ composite posteriors is the result of advanced materials development and highly advanced computer controlled manufacturing at every stage of the process.

 

 

Abrasion in chewing simulator

This test shows the superior abrasion resistance of enigmalife+ posteriors compared to ones made from PMMA.

Method description: The chewing simulator is the Model CS-4, developed by SD Mechatronik GmbH, Germany.
Plate samples were prepared with 15mm diameter and 2mm thickness. As antagonists, stainless steel orbs loaded with 5ON force were used. The machine performed 640,000 cycles in water. After said 640,000 cycles, the samples were dried and their weight loss was measured. In the test series, the enigmalife+ composite material shows only half the abrasion of PMMA.

 

 

Vickers Hardness Tests - Best in Class

The hardness of the enamel of enigmalife+ posteriors was tested in comparison to other brands of denture teeth. Hardness can be taken as a predictor of wear.

 

 

Wear tested in University of Zurich Chewing Simulator

Simulated chewing was carried out to test the wear of posterior tooth material opposing the mesio buccal cusps of human molar teeth as antagonists. A bite force of 50N was employed and the materials further stressed by thermal cycling between 5 degree C and 50 degree C every 30 seconds. The material loss was measured by means of a 3DS surface roughness machine. Figures shown are relative values.

 

Bonding Test ISO 22112

In order to test the bond to denture base of the various layers of the enigmalife+ posteriors, teeth were manufactured from each layer in turn.

A) enigmalife+ PMMA Neck Material

B) enigmalife+ composite dentine material

C) enigmalife+ composite enamel material

As specified in the standard, anterior teeth, which provide a smaller bonding area than posteriors, were used. The wax was removed with boiling tap water and no further preparation of the teeth was carried out (such as sandblasting or cleaning with monomer). All teeth, including those made from enigmalife composite, bonded perfectly to the denture base (enigma high-base). There was no discernible difference between the bond to enigmalife PMMA or to enigmalife+ composite. This demonstrates that grinding through the  enigmalife+ PMMA neck does not affect the strength of the bond between tooth and denture base.

In an additional series of tests a cold cure acrylic (Pegasus Pourable) was used. Once again all teeth, including those made from enigmalife+ composite, bonded perfectly to the denture base.

In a further series of tests, to confirm whether enigmalife+ teeth could be bonded to composite, a bonding agent (Schottlander Composite Bond) was applied according to the manufacturer’s instructions. After application of the bonding agent to them, all teeth including those made from enigmalife composite also bonded perfectly.

Please click here to download the pdf of the evaluation of bond to Enigma High Impact Denture Base.