Maxillofacial Prosthesis Materials: Current Challenges and Effect of Tropical Environment on Physico-Mechanical Properties

ABSTRACT

Maxillofacial prosthesis play an important role in the rehabilitation of patients with facial defects resulting from trauma, surgery or congenital anomalies. This review article discusses different categories of materials including acrylic resin, vinyl polymer, chlorinated polyethylene, polyurethane and silicone elastomers and highlights their advantages and limitations. In particular, the current materials used in maxillofacial prosthetics, i.e. silicone material, RTV (room-temperature vulcanized) silicone and HTV (high-temperature vulcanized) silicone are highlighted focusing on the prevailing challenges and their physico-mechanical properties for maxillofacial prosthesis application. Finally, the effect of tropical climate and further perspectives on RTV and HTV based maxillofacial materials are critically discussed to motivate potential research in this area.

GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT

KEYWORDS:

• Maxillofacial prosthesis
• silicon elastomers
• RTV
• HTV
• tropical climate

Acknowledgments

Authors are acknowledged to the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India, vide research grant number RP04633 for financial support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ranjana T

Ranjana T is a Junior Research Fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Department of Materials Science and Engineering. She received her MSc in Biopolymer Science from the Cochin University of Science and Technology in 2019 and BSc in Chemistry from University of Calicut in 2017. Her Research interest includes Biopolymers and its Processing, Synthesis of Bioactive materials for Biomedical Applications.

Bhushan Gulab Patil

Bhushan Gulab Patil is an M. Tech student at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Department of Materials Science and Engineering. He received his B. Tech. in Plastic and Polymer Engineering in 2021 from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Chatrapati Sambhaji Nagar (Aurangabad), India. His research interest includes biomedical materials for Maxillofacial Applications.

Dhiraj Kumar Rana

Dr. Dhiraj Kumar Rana is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. He completed his Ph.D. on multiferroic polymer nanocomposites for multifunctional flexible electronics application from the Department of Physics, National Institute of Technology Durgapur in 2019. Currently, he is working on the development of advanced functional elastomeric materials for soft matter engineering.

Veena Jain

Prof. Veena Jain is a Professor in the Department of Prosthodontics at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi. She has received her MDS in from KGMS, Lucknow University. She has completed 48 departmental projects as chief head. Her research is focused on Implants in Prosthetic Rehabilitation, Geriatric Prosthodontics and Maxillofacial Prosthetics.

Shib Shankar Banerjee

Dr. Shib Shankar Banerjee is an assistant professor at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Before joining IIT Delhi, he was a research scientist at IPF Dresden, Germany, and postdoctoral research associate at the University of Massachusetts Lowell, USA. He received his Ph.D. in elastomer science and technology from IIT Patna in 2016. His research is focused on elastomers and additive manufacturing of functional elastomeric/ polymeric materials.