AWARENESS ON MICROWAVE CURING IN DENTURE BASE RESINS AMONG DENTAL STUDENTS

Introduction:Microwave curing involves direct energy absorption by the materials. It has the beneficial effects on processing time, faster curing rate, with more potential advantages over thermal curing such as energy saving, lower operating costs, reduced time for complete curing, more uniform curing, higher efficiency, increased process control, reduced degradation, increased throughput & good physical, mechanical& thermal properties. Microwave processing has several time-saving advantages over conventional processing of denture base resins. Materials and method: A questionnaire was prepared based on the topic. The questionnaire was distributed through an online survey planet link and the study population included 100 students belonging to the 15-25 age group. The participants were explained about the purpose of study in detail. The questions were carefully studied and the corresponding answers were marked by the participants. The data was collected and statistically analyzed. Results: Most of them were aware of the equipment used in microwave curing. In previous studies, It was found that microwave cured resins had high flexural strength compared to the other curing methods which most of the students in the present study are aware of Conclusion: Majority of the students were not aware about the microwave curing method which is the most preferable method for curing denture base acrylics. This survey only involves students but further studies can be done to provide knowledge about microwave curing of denture base resins among a large population.