A Comparison of the Wetting Ability of Three Artificial Saliva Substitutes on Heat-Cured Denture Base Resin – An In vitro Study

INTRODUCTION: Salivary substitutes are gaining popularity these days because of the increase in patients with dry mouth. These substitutes must satisfy certain criteria to fulfill the patient’s needs. One of these is wettability. MATERIALS AND METHODS: One hundred fifty rectangular specimens of heat-cured denture base acrylic resin were prepared. A drop of test liquids (human saliva, distilled water, aqwet, saleva, and wet mouth) was placed over the test specimen and right and left contact angles were measured using optical contact angle machine. RESULTS: All test liquids performed better than distilled water. Human saliva has the least contact angle followed by aqwet. CONCLUSION: Carboxymethyl cellulose base aqwet saliva substitute was found to be best having similar contact angle values to human saliva.