If you need to have a crown made or other restoration, you will need to have impressions made. You may wonder why you need to have an impression made of a tooth and why the process is important. If so, the following information can give you further insight on why impressions make a difference.
What Restorations Require Dental Impressions and How Is the Process Started
Dental impressions serve several uses in the dental field. They are used regularly in our practice to make dental restorations, such as crowns, veneers, and bridges, or to create dentures, and abutments for dental implants. Custom mouthguards are made from impressions as are whitening trays, used for whitening the teeth at home. We may also take impressions to serve as a model for before-and-after dental treatments. When an impression is made, a thick liquid, such as polyvinylsiloxane or alginate, is placed in an impression tray. This tray is u-shaped so it can fit more easily inside your mouth. Alginate naturally occurs from an aquamarine plant known as brown seaweed. Therefore, this material is deemed food-safe. The material absorbs water, which also makes it useful as a slimming agent in weight loss products.
How Is an Impression Made?
The tray that is used is either a stock tray or special tray. Stock trays are manufactured in various shapes and sizes, and in bulk, while special trays are customized to the dimensions of a patient's mouth. When the alginate or impression materials is poured into the tray, the tray is placed on the upper or lower dental arch. Impressions of the upper jaw include the roof of the mouth while impressions of the lower jaw also involve the floor of the mouth beneath the tongue. The material soon hardens after it is taken out of the mouth. This makes it easy for us to send the mold to the lab so a restoration can be created.
As you can see, impressions help our office in providing well-fitting dental restorations. To make a good impression when you smile, you need to have impressions made of certain restorations. Give us a call today at (971) 708-1608 so we can talk to you more about dental impressions.
Dentist Hillsboro, OR | Dental Blog - Century Dental Hillsboro, OR Jefferson Call, DMD and Dix Densley, DDS believe that the better informed their patients are, the better their decisions about dental care can be. With this blog, they hope to inform and empower our readers in their oral health. - See more Century Dental, 2831 SE Cornelius Pass Rd, Hillsboro, OR 97123, (971) 708-1608, centurydentalllc.com, 3/13/2025, Page Phrases: Dentist Hillsboro OR
If you need to have a crown made or other restoration, you will need to have impressions made. You may wonder why you need to have an impression made of a tooth and why the process is important. If so, the following information can give you further insight on why impressions make a difference.