To all delegates, administrative officials, faculty, students, friends, Good morning.

No words can express how happy I am to be back here.

It has been 4 months ago when I graduated in Dentistry.
And now, who would ever have thought that Ill be one of the speaker of todays event.

To Ms. Venus Solar and the entire MCU research department, thank you for this opportunity.
Dissertation or what we call Thesis, is one of the requirement a student needs to comply to finish his course.
Most college students fear dissertation. No doubt about it. Youll spend lots of time, money, effort and energy.
Sleepless nights tons of stress expensive laboratory materials, fees, tests your mentors that sometimes
turned into tormentors... endless revisions
These are the common problems why students fear making research.
But just like the other students, we experienced the same.
Our group is still in awe knowing that we made it and succeeded. And making this far would not be possible
without the assistance of the people behind it.
To our beloved advisers, Dr. Filipina Ng and Dr. Ruel Briones, thank you for bringing the best on us. Thank you
for your endless wisdom and knowledge, for always motivating us in times we doubt ourselves.
To Dean Garcia, thank you for the endless support. Youre one of our inspiration to strive more. Not just for
ourselves, but for our College.
To our Dentsply Sirona Philippines, Korea and Hong Kong family, thank you very much. You are indeed the
tooth fairies of our dreams. Thank you for the opportunity, to express ourselves not just locally but also
internationally. And for strengthening our confidence to face the real world and overcome the battles within.
And today, let me share you the winning piece of our country, ranked as the 3rd placer at the late International
Association for Dental Research South East Asia Division, last June 24, 2016 at Gangnam Gu, Seoul, South
Korea
Title (Slide 2)
Actually, this is the 2nd time that this research will be presented here in our University.
Last February 22, 2016, our research paper was able to joined the last Intercollegiate Research Contest here
in our University, which was also spearheaded by the MCU research Department.
Our research title is about the Flexural Strength of Heat Cured Acrylic Denture Base reinforced with water
hyacinth.
So.. I will first introduce you to particular terms so that you can easily understand the study.
First is Flexural Strength.

Flexural strength is a measure of how a certain material will strain and potentially even deform when
weight is applied to it.
While Denture base is the part of denture that serves as the rest and foundation to the tissue and to
which teeth are attached.
(Slide 5)
Here is a detailed figure of a complete denture.
(Slide 6)
Denture is what we all know is a prosthesis that replaces missing teeth and restores functions of phoenetics,
esthetics and most especially, mastication.
Requirements for a good denture should exhibit
accurate fit,
stability in the oral environment,
and resistance to impact fracture.
However, fracture still do happen during function or accidental drop.
Studies show that
68% of acrylic resin dentures, break within a few years after fabrication primarily due to impact failure.
(Johnston et al.)
33% of the repairs are carried out by debonded or detached teeth or pontics
29% were repairs because of fractures in flexural fatigue and impact fractures due to accidental dropping
and the remaining
38% were other types of denture fractures such as detachment of metal based dentures and fracture of clasps
and connectors.
Because of this, studies have been carried out on ways
to improve the physical and mechanical properties of heat cured resin.
(Slide 7)
Over years, Fiber reinforcement has been used to overcome the mechanical limitations of denture base. It
increases impact strength and fracture resistance of the resin.
(Slide 8)
Here is a schematic analogy of denture base fiber reinforcement.
Let us assume that the concrete will be the DENTURE BASE, and the Soil or land, will be the RIDGE or
in tagalog term, gilagi of the jaw.
When a load or force is applied, normally, an object will bear the stress, and if it cannot withstand the
force itself, it will break.
Just like in dentures, it also fractures. As Ive mentioned in my earlier slides, various factors may
contribute.
In this study, we reinforced the Denture base with Water hyacinth fibers, which is a good example of
natural or BIOFIBERS of today.

Here is a figurative detail of our study.

(Slide 13)
Of all natural fibers that are available today, we considered using Water hyacinth fibers.
Water hyacinth fibers, or what we called Water Lily is a free floating plant very common in North
America, Tropical Africa and in Southeast Asian countries, like Philippines.
However, due to its large and unregulated population in water bodies, it has become undesirable and
harmful to other aquatic species as well as aquatic ecosystems. Thus it also causes clogging of
waterways that later produces floods.
And we all know that our country, Philippines, experiences a lot of these (clogging waterways, floods) which
triggered ourselves to innovate and modify this kind of plant pest into a more beneficial way.
According to Studies One among other natural plant fibers that showed increased tensile strength,
better interfacial adhesion between fibers and matrixes when used with polymethyl methacrylate

(Slide 20)
Here is an outline of our research study.
The goal of this study is to improve and lessen the denture fractures of today.
Here, we believe that well not just help the persons who fabricate dentures, dentists, dental technicians, but
will also contribute to the innovations in the field of Dentistry.
We can promote the usage of water hyacinth today. And can help our environment by means of reducing
overpopulated water hyacinth on river banks and other watersides. Hence we can reduce waterways clogging,
and floods.
For everyones information, Water hyacinth, or Water lily fibers today is already widely used. Its fibers are used
in making native slippers, bags, baskets, mats and other handicraft products.
If this study will be properly endorsed, we believe that we can help not just the field of Dentistry, but also
improve our Economy by means of producing more job opportunities for our fellow Filipinos. Thereby,
improving the wellness and living of individuals.
(Slide 21)
For the control group samples, Acrylic resin polymer and monomer were mixed in a small jar until proper
consistency was achieved and placed in between two stainless steel mould lined with polyester film.
Pressure was applied to release air bubbles and flash materials. 10 slices were made following the 2mm X
2mm X 20mm measurement.
All samples were placed in 75 degree Celsius water bath for 8 hours to complete the polymerization.

For the experimental group, we began by immersing the water hyacinth fibers in alkali solution for 5mins, and
later incorporating it vertically with equal distance in a sandwich technique in acrylic resin mixture following the
previous steps.

(Slide 22)
Once our samples were ready, each sample was placed in a Universal Testing Machine one at a time.
Load then was applied at the specimen at a crosshead speed of (0.75 + 0.25) mm/min or at a rate of loadig of
(50 + 16) N/min until the specimen fractures
(Slide 23)
Table 1 shows the computed flexural strength in MPa of ten samples for control and experimental group using
the samples width, height and distance of two supports (constant) and amount of forced applied on the sample
to produce fracture.
The blue represents the experimental group, while green is the control group.
Here, we can easily predict that the experimental group exhibits increased strength compared to the control
group without fiber reinforcement.
(Silde 24)
In this second table, it shows the computed means of each group in two tailed testing using IBM SPSS
statistics 20. Two-tailed test is used to know the probability of both direction and relationship.

CLOSING
Indeed, it has been a long battle journey. And we can say to ourselves that yes, we did it. We succeeded.
This will not just help ourselves but will serve as an inspiration to all young researches out there, that there is
something from nothing.
Some might think that these water lilies are water pest, but hey, dont underestimate it. It has a lot of things
others cant offer.
I dare you all young centralino researchers, to express yourselves. To conquer your fears. To be part of a
growing innovative technology based researches of today.
Our greatest gratitude to our alma mater, Manila Central University, for being part of an outgrowing community,
and for helping us to be of what we are today. Thank you very much. May you continue what you have started.
To God be all the glory.
Before I end my presentation, I prepared a video clip of our thesis journey.
(After video)
Again, Thank you very much and have a good day!