HARDNESS AND SHOCK ABSORPTION OF SILICONE-RUBBER FOR MOUTH GUARDS

Silicone rubbers have general. properties that make them suitable for the fabrication of custom-made mouth guards. This study evaluated the shock absorption properties and Shore A hardness of several silicone r ubbers and derived products, compared their values with those of mater ials commonly used for the manufacture of mouth guards, and correlated the shock absorption and transmission abilities of these different ma terials with their Shore hardness. Silicone rubbers absorb shock bette r than the materials currently used for custom-made mouth guards, In a ddition, to adapt mouth guards to particular sports, the properties of the silicone rubbers can be appropriately modified by the addition of oils or glass fiber reinforcement, Statistical analysis of hardness v alues and transmitted forces for the 27 materials tested indicates tha t the maximum transmitted force increases with hardness, However, this relationship is not linear, and departure from linearity is greatest for minimal and maximal hardness values.