Effects of Color and Glitter on the Removable Space Maintainer

Introduction: It may be necessary to make some modifications to the removable space maintainers for the persuasion of children to use this device. However, modification of the polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) may affect its mechanical properties as well. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate the effects of color and glitter on the flexural strength of  PMMA. Methods: For the purposes of the study, 40 PMMA specimens (64 mm×10 mm×2.5 mm) were prepared and divided into 4 groups (n=10). For all groups, PMMA resin was mixed according to the instructions provided by the manufacturers. Group 1 was prepared with clear resin and served as the control group. Group 2 was prepared with clear resin and glitter. Group 3 was prepared as colored by adding color concentrate. Group 4 was colored similar to Group 3 and glitter was added as well. Finally, a three-point flexure test was used to measure the flexural strength of the specimens. The flexural strength was analyzed using the Kruskal–Wallis test. The Conover-Iman test of multiple comparisons was used to detect the differences among the groups. In all the tests, a P-value of 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The PMMA with glitter showed statistically significant reduced flexural strength value, compared to clear PMMA. Moreover, the addition of color caused an insignificant increase in the flexural strength of PMMA. Conclusion: The addition of glitter to clear PMMA reduced the flexural strength of the material while other modifications did not