After doing block carving and vacuform plastic matrix acrylic for a while it has been nice using this material we have been introduced to called reprosil. It comes in many forms, the pictures here is the putty stuff, there is also light, medium and heavy bodied stuff that allows for greater detail, etc. We should be using it soon. This post is short, but I want to illustrate the difference it makes.
The material comes in two buckets. You mix equal parts from both buckets and get a Play-doh type of material. You squish it onto the teeth and let it set. After a few minutes it has turned into a stiff rubbery type of material. Here are some pictures:
When it sets you prepare the teeth like shown in previous articles and then you use this reprocil as a mold for the original tooth anatomy. Lets see if I can clarify this for you:
- Reprosil impression
- Prepare teeth
- Place acrylic into the reprosil mold and squish it onto prepared teeth
- The teeth that come out look like the old teeth and fit onto the prepared teeth.
- Time saved: 30 minutes
I have been told that not many dentists use this, and in fact you will rarely use it in the clinic on patients. There are even easier methods than this. Still, it is good to get your hands on everything possible. Here is the difference between the two teeth. Notice the teeth in the typodont are the ones I carved that you thought looked so sweet. i admit they are not my best performance, but this WAS my first one ever. Compare it to the reprosil model.
It is good that we are taught how to carve out of acrylic because sometimes you will be faced with a patient that comes into your office with a broken tooth and you will not have original tooth structure to go by. You will have to carve one and make sure it is of high quality to be used as a temporary. Many students at Temple in the clinics still block carve their temporary crowns.
5 responses so far ↓
1 ping // May 26, 2007 at 3:16 pm
nice 3-unit. modififed ridge lap? thats the only type of pontic we really use here.
i personally dont like using the putty for a crown or 3-unit - it’s hard to see to re-seat sometimes and then it messes up your acrylic. we use the putty mainly for wax xut-backs (to see if we removed enough wax from the facial), or for the building up the lingual on a class IV. very helpful.
yes, there are much easier ways, but of course they all cost more $, so i guess thats why we dont use it?
2 Dr. John // May 26, 2007 at 7:35 pm
I think the cheapest and best way to do it is to take an alginate impression of the teeth that you’re gonna prep first, and then set it to the side. Then use that impression to make your provisionals. I did that for one of my patients in dental school who needed a three unit bridge. I set a denture tooth in her mouth, took and impression and then prepped the teeth. Then i put some acrylic in the impression and stuck the alginate impression back in her mouth. The whole provisional making process took me 15 mins. Pretty sweet if I say so myself. Plus this is WAY cheaper than using that Reprosil stuff. Alginate costs like $5 a bag, compared to like $40-50 bucks for that reprosil stuff. There’s a little pearl of wisdom for ya. I didn’t figure out the alginate thing until I was done with 10 crowns or so in dental school. haha
3 ben // May 26, 2007 at 8:18 pm
Nice tips. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of acrylic do you use? Ours shrinks a LOT and reseating is a pain. I will definitely try the alginate method. AND just so everyone know the reprosilI got was inherited from an upperclassman for free. There was no way I was going to pay 50 bucks for a couple of tubs or putty!
4 Dr. John // May 27, 2007 at 3:59 pm
I’m actually in an ortho residency right now. No more general dentistry for me. I do remember us using the Jet acrylic though (I also graduated from Temple so thats what they gave us). There’s not too much you can do about shrinkage with that stuff. That’s the nature of that kind of material though. I think if you leave the acrylic on the teeth longer it doesn’t seem to shrink as much..but then again it increases the chances of it locking onto there. I didn’t really use that water bath at all in the preclinic or clinic. I just kept pulling the provisional off and then reseating it over and over again to make sure it didn’t lock on. I think you get more shrinkage if u take it off and put it in the water bath. That’s just my opinion though.
5 www.DMDstudent.com » Blog Archive » Gold Crown // Jun 26, 2007 at 10:52 pm
[...] After the custom tray has been made you take an impression of the typodont with the prepared crown on it. The impression material is called polyvinyl siloxane or as it is commonly known, reprosil. There is reprosil putty which was recently nominated as my best friend (I don’t have very many as you can see by all the time I have for this website.) There is also light body, medium body, and heavy body reprosil. It comes in tubes and is applied using a gun. Here is the impression and the gun: [...]
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