Static Mechanical Characterization of Cements for Dental Implantology through Nanoindentation

The nanoindentation technique has become very popular in the field of mechanical testing of materials for biomedical applications, due to the punctually of the test, the reduced quantity of material required and the possibility of testing soft materials . This technique has been used in this work with the purpose of identifying the mechanical properties of cements for dental implantology. Three cements were characterized. For all the samples the same input curve was applied. The experimental plan considered three factors: the cement type, the loading rate and the indentation depth. On samples, the Young’s Modulus and Hardness were calculated by applying the Oliver and Pharr Method. The mechanical properties were subsequently compared through multivariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). Results confirmed the higher mechanical properties of permanent cements compared with temporary ones, also highlighting a viscous-plastic behavior for all the cements analyzed.