Effect of immersion cleansing in color stability and hardness of soft denture reliners.

Hygienic care of removable prostheses is important, and denture cleansers selected must be efficient and maintain the physicomechanical properties of soft reliners. Microwave energy has been reported to increase the sanitation effectiveness of denture cleansers. The purpose of the study was to evaluate hardness and color stability of some visible light polymerized and autopolymerized soft reliners after exposure in different denture-cleansing treatments. Six soft denture reliners (2 autopolymerized silicones, 1 autopolymerized acrylic, and 3 visible light polymerized ones) were exposed to 4 cleansing treatments (Corega Whitening, Polident 5-Minute, Corega Whitening + microwaving, Polident 5-Minute + microwaving). Hardness was measured with a Shore A durometer, and color changes were evaluated by a tristimulus colorimeter. The results were subjected to 2-way analysis of variance and Scheffé test for post hoc comparisons at a confidence level of α = 0.05. Sofreliner showed the smallest hardness change, and LightLiner the greatest. Versasoft and Sofreliner seem to have the lowest color change for every cleansing treatment examined, whereas LightLiner and Eversoft presented the greatest. Silicone-based materials demonstrated the smallest changes in both hardness and color, either when using water or with any of the other cleansing treatments.