Background: Research in the dental material field is progressing to find the perfect material for maxillofacial prosthetics. This material must meet certain criteria such as functionality, biocompatibility, esthetics, and durability. Silicone is currently the most commonly used material, but it still has weaknesses that need to be addressed. This article explores how environmental factors, such as sunlight, rain, wind and cleaning, can affect auricular prostheses. The article also examines the areas where current materials fall short and need improvement to provide individuals with the best maxillofacial prostheses possible. Aim: The purpose of this in vitro study was to evaluate and compare the effect of indoor and outdoor weathering on mechanical properties and color stability of high temperature vulcanized silicone (HTV) maxillofacial elastomer material. Objective: To evaluate and compare tear strength, tensile strength, hardness and color stability of HTV silicone before and after 6 months of indoor condition and outdoor weathering. Materials and methods: In order to achieve the objective, mechanical properties of maxillofacial silicone material Technovent Z004 Platinum Silicone Rubber was investigated before and after natural outdoor weathering in comparison to indoor weathering. A total of 40 maxillofacial silicone samples were prepared in two different shapes and sizes using a standardized stainless steel die. The samples were divided into two groups, indoor and outdoor weathering of 20 samples each. Before weathering the samples were tested at baseline for hardness and color stability. About 20 samples were placed in a dry dark closed box and the other half samples were placed outdoor on a rooftop for 6 months. After 6 months, final testing for all the parameters was done using Universal Testing Machine, Shore A durometer and spectrophotometer. The mean values of all the readings of all the samples were statistically analyzed.
Result:The results obtained from this in vitro study conclusively showed that over time the tear strength, tensile strength, hardness and color stability (∆E) degraded more in outdoor samples (tear strength = 16.93 N/mm, tensile strength = 2.77 N/mm 2 , Hardness = 39.50, ∆E = 1.81) as compared to indoor samples (tear strength = 20.22 N/mm, tensile strength = 3.61 N/mm 2 , Hardness = 37.25, ∆E = 0.72). This showed that apart from aging, exposure to sunlight degrades the silicone even more and it needs to repeat a new prosthesis after every 6 months. Conclusion: Silicone elastomers are thus materials that have ideal physical properties suitable for making prosthesis to replace lost facial structures. Though, esthetic quality still requires future studies, particularly long-term prospective clinical trials to determine the amount of distortion tolerable biologically and mechanically.