In vitro Study on the Dimensional Stability of Interocclusal Recording Materials

The teeth are found in the alveolar processes of both the upper and lower jaw and they form the two maxillary and mandibular dental arches, the various relations of which support the performance of the dental apparatus functions, one of the most important of which is mastication. These relations are also known as interocclusal relations, among which the moments in which the dento-dental contacts (occlusal relations) play an important role. Maximum intercuspation (MI) is the most frequent mandibulo-cranial functional position with dento-dental contact. The vast majority of functional food incision and mastication cycles end in MI. The highest number of dento-dental contacts, and the largest possible stability and surface of these contacts are also achieved in MI. Given the relative easiness of determination, recording and transfer of the MI position, it is used in many clinical situations to report the models of the two arches. The interocclusal recording materials used in our study were seven silicones, six of which with addition reaction, five with special destination for interocclusal relation determination and a putty-like silicone normally used for dental arch impression - Elite HD and one condensation silicone used for impressions. The reason for choosing the last two materials was the fact that some practitioners frequently use putty-like impression silicone to determine interocclusal relations. According to the findings of the measurements shown in table 1, further to the initial impression process, at the time TO, satisfactory results were obtained both for addition silicones and for condensation silicones, Registrado X-tra being the only recording material which exhibited major deviation from the standard dimension (3 mm). As for the Optosil condensation silicone, we noted a significant increase of the thickness of the material starting with the first hour after impression and reaching considerable values on the 5th day, which were 0.3 mm higher than the standard value. Rigid addition silicones have the lowest dimensional stability; putty-like silicones are frequently used to record interocclusal relations for fixed prosthetics, which is wrong since they grow rapidly and this impedes on the space between the treated tooth and the opposite tooth, the result being a high restoration, which may determine premature contacts. Except for Optosil, which exhibited a continuous increase, most materials may be used to mount models in the simulator after 24 h.