Flexural strength and surface hardness in titanium nanoparticle-reinforced polymethyl methacrylate provisional restorative material: An in vitro study

Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) provisional materials often suffer from inadequate mechanical properties, particularly low flexural strength and surface hardness, limiting their durability. Therefore, it is of interest to investigate whether adding 3 wt% titanium dioxide (TiO₂) nanoparticles could improve these properties in heat-cured PMMA resin. Hence, a total of 160 standardized specimens were tested for flexural strength and Vickers hardness using universal testing and micro-hardness methods. TiO₂-reinforced PMMA showed a significant increase in flexural strength (56.62 ą 1.43 to 70.65 ą 8.32 MPa) and surface hardness (23.22 ą 1.30 to 26.74 ą 1.03 VH). Incorporating 3 wt% TiO₂ notably enhances PMMA's mechanical performance, supporting its use in more demanding provisional applications.