Abstract
Aims: To evaluate the surface hardness of the heat–cured acrylic resins with two different thicknessescured by two curing methods conventional water bath and microwave energy. Materials and Methods:Heat–cured acrylic resin was used in this study. Rectangular specimens were prepared with twodifferent thicknesses (3 and 6mm) and cured by two different curing methods, conventional water bathand microwave energy methods. The specimens were divided into two groups according to the curingmethod and specimens thickness. Forty specimens were prepared, ten specimens for each group. Thesurface hardness was evaluated with Rock well hardness tester. Mean values wear compared statisticallywith one way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Duncan' s multiple range test to determinethe significant different among the groups at (p<0.05) level of significance. Results: The resultsshowed that there is a highly significant difference of the means value of the surface hardness amongthe four tested groups. Specimens cured by conventional water bath with 3mm thickness have the highestvalue in relation to 6mm thickness of specimens cured by microwave energy. Conclusions: Thecuring method, and specimens thicknesses have a significant effect on the specimens surface hardnessvalue. The specimens that cured by the conventional water bath method have a higher values than thatcured by the microwave energy curing method and the thicker specimens have a lower values than thethinner one in both curing methods.
