Stopping-power ratio of mouthpiece materials for charged-particle therapy in head and neck cancer

In this study, the stopping-power ratios (SPRs) of mouthpiece materials were measured and the errors in the predicted SPRs based on conversion table values were further investigated. The SPRs of the five mouthpiece materials were predicted from their computed tomography (CT) numbers using a calibrated conversion table. Independently, the SPRs of the materials were measured from the Bragg peak shift of a carbon-ion beam passing through the materials. The errors in the SPRs of the materials were determined as the difference between the predicted and measured values. The measured SPRs (errors) of the Nipoflex 710™ and Bioplast™ ethylene–vinyl acetate copolymers (EVAs) were 0.997 (0.023) and 0.982 (0.007), respectively. The SPRs of the vinyl silicon impression material, light-curable resin, and bis-acrylic resin were 1.517 (0.134), 1.161 (0.068), and 1.26 (0.101), respectively. Among the five tested materials, the EVAs had the lowest SPR errors, indicating the highest human-tissue equivalency.