The Influence of Tea Tree Oil Incorporation on Candida Albicans Adhesion, Surface Hardness and Transverse Flexural Strength of High Impact Acrylic Denture Base Material

Abstract

Background: Cleaning dentures was an important procedure in order to decrease the spread of infections, improve patient health, increase the longevity of dentures, and general quality of life; as a result, it was essential to select the right cleanser that, in addition to was efficient and, even after prolonged use, had no negative effects on the denture base resin's qualities. Tea Tree oil (TTO) is the essential oil which has antifungal, antioxidant and antibacterial properties.  this study aimed to evaluate the effect TTO on Candida albicans adhesion, surface hardness and transversal flexural strength property of high impact acrylic denture material after incorporation with TTO at different concentration.   Methods: A total of 80 specimens of high impact acrylic incorporation with different concentration of TTO   were used for Candida albicans adherence, surface hardness and transverse flexural strength tests.   They are divided into three groups, 30 specimens   for Candida albicans adherence test, 25 specimens for surface hardness and 25 specimens for transverse flexural test. After that categorized into   subgroups: (control, 6% tea tree oil, 9% ,12% and 15%) of tea tree oil incorporation with high impact acrylic, 5 specimens for each group and 5 specimens of 1.4% nystatin were used as positive control to decide which concentration of tea tree oil is to be used in Candida albicans adherence test. A spectrophotometer was used to measure optical density in order to identify Candida albicans adhesion test. to measure transvers flexural strength Three-points bending test was carried out utilizing an Instron universal testing apparatus and to measure surface hardness used shore D Indenter. At a significance level of 0.05, the Shapiro-Wilk test, one-way ANOVA, and post hoc Tukey's test were used to analyze the data.  Results.  TTO had a statistically highly significant effect on Candida albicans adherence with different concentration of TTO (6%,9%,12% and 15%) when compared with negative control. For positive control (1.4%nystatin) showed a statistically non-significant difference (P > 0.05) between (6% and 9% TTO) and positive control. For transverse strength have a significant effect (P < 0.05) between control and (6% ,9% and 15%), with the exception of the non-significant difference between 12% and control. However, the surface hardness test found a difference between 6% and 9% and control and 6% TTO that was statistically non-significant (P > 0.05). with the exception of the non-significant difference between 12% and control. However, the surface hardness test found that was statistically non-significant (P > 0.05) between (6% and 9%) and (control and 6% TTO).