Materials Used for Making a Dental Impression

Your dentist or orthodontist has many reasons for making impressions of your teeth. Perhaps you have a tooth that is a bit out of line and could cause problems as you age, and you want braces or other corrective appliances. Or perhaps you need a replacement tooth, and the dentist needs to see how to make it fit properly with your other teeth. Various materials are used to make dental impressions, and each might be used for a specific application or type of impression, depending what the dentist needs to accomplish.

Alginate

• One of the most common materials for dental impressions is alginate. Alginate materials are generally mixed and poured right in the dentist's office, and these materials are fine for certain general applications, such as for making night guards to keep from grinding your teeth at night, or for making general first impressions for installation of braces or other corrective dentistry. However, alginates are not the best for complex work, and other materials are used for precision dentistry.

Zinc Oxide Eugenol Pastes

• Zinc oxide eugenol pastes are used for making edentulous impressions. They are fast-setting and do not distort soft mouth tissues such as gums.

Polyvinylsiloxane

• PVS is a premixed substitute for alginate materials. It eliminates the chance of mixing up the wrong type or amount of alginate, which could require making a second impression. PVS is used for complicated bridgework and other types of detailed impressions that need to be perfect the first time.

Reversible Hydrocolloids

• Reversible hydrocolloids are one of the oldest types of impression-making materials. They are heated up at the beginning of the week and left to simmer so that they can be used all week long for making impressions. These are gradually being replaced by PVS and alginate materials.