Why use alginate substitutes?


I have been in the habit of taking full arch impressions for crowns for almost my entire career. In theory my bites should be extremely accurate. Lately I have been having a problem with crowns needing too much occlusal adjustment.  My assistant has maintained for over a year that the hold alginate adhesive we have been using seems not to have been working as well. After a discussion with my dental lab, I decided to start using silicone alginate substitutes for all my counters.

 I have been doing so for over a month and I seem to have solved my "bite" problem. The last 3 crowns I inserted have needed minimal occlusal adjustments and aside from the additional cost of the alginate substitute, I see no reason not to continue using a fast setting alginate substitute for all my counters. Alginate substitute isn't cheap (about $8 per full mouth impression) but the time I am saving adjusting bites more than compensates for the cost of the alginate substitute. Also an added benefit, is that my assistant doesn't have to spend the time to pour up my alginate counters.



from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2017/10/why-use-alginate-substitutes.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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