Characterisation of nylon fibre mesh/HAP/PMMA micro-hybrid composite for alternative mouthguard material

We investigated the properties of NFM/HAP/PMMA composites to characterise the potential composite as a mouthguard material. The composites were made with a ratio of nylon fibre mesh (NFM) (20 vol%) and mixtures of polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) and hydroxyapatite (HAP) (80 vol%). PMMA and HAP varied with ratios of 80:0, 79:1, 78:2, 77:3, and 75:5 (vol%). Bending, impact, hardness, and water absorption tests were carried out. Adding 1 and 2% HAP by volume fraction reached the optimum values for flexural strength (36.85 MPa) and impact strength (66.37 kJ/m2), respectively. The composite's hardness and water absorption increased with adding HAP, and the maximum hardness and water absorption of 71.7 Shore-D and 2.25%, respectively, were achieved by the composite added with 5 vol% HAP. Water absorption of the composite by adding 1 vol% HAP reached the lowest value of 0.6%. Accordingly, this composite is potentially used as an alternative mouthguard material.