Laboratory Fabrication Procedures Dubravka KnezoviÊ-ZlatariÊ

Monika Nemet
Ivo BauËiÊ
of a Metal Partial Denture Department of Prosthodontics

Framework School of Dental Medicine

University of Zagreb

Summary Acta Stomat Croat

2003; 95-98
Metal partial denture framework is a constituent part of each metal
partial denture. Its fabrication requires precision of both the technician
and the dentist - from the initial phase of planning this prosthetic restora-
tion, during impression taking, making of stone casts, cast duplica-
tion, modelling by means of wax patterns, flasking of duplicate casts,
heating, glowing and casting of the metal construction, elimination of
sprues and sandblasting, until final polishing of the casting and its REVIEW
adjustment on a stone cast and in the patient’s mouth. Received: April 11, 2002
Sophisticated equipment plays an important part in technological
fabrication procedures: robust and strong technical motor, paral-
lelometer, thermostatic bowl for the duplication material, sandblast- Address for correspondence:
ing device, device for mechanical polishing and electropolishing, glow-
Dr. sc. dr. D. KnezoviÊ-
ing furnace, and finally, a special casting device based on induced elec- -ZlatariÊ
tric current. Department of Prosthodontics
School of Dental Medicine
Key words: casting, cobalt-chromium alloy, duplicating, flasking, GunduliÊeva 5, 10000 Zagreb
metal partial denture framework. Croatia

Introduction The fabrication procedure for a one-piece cast-

ing is described in the following.
Metal partial denture frameworkfabrication, as
an important constituent part of a future partial den-
ture, holds a very important place in the fabrication Planning a future prosthetic restoration
process of metal partial dentures.
After functional impression it is necessary to
The method of a one-piece casting is based on make a working cast from hard stone.
the fabrication of a metal frame together with all Just before the start of one-piece casting fabri-
necessary elements that are cast in one piece (1). cation the dentist needs to plan the position and size
It is necessary to point out that metals being con- of a future denture base, saddles and all constituent
siderably more resistant to fractures than acrylic elements for retention, stability and even transfer of
resins enable fabrication of reduced forms of partial partial denture loading (2-7).
denture bases, which contributes to a better and Based on the planned future restoration, the tech-
faster adjustment of the patient to new conditions in nician begins with a further fabrication of a one-
the oral cavity. -piece casting (8-10).

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Duplication of the original stone cast ure 4). There is an opening on the device from which
the material is poured into the flaskfor cast dupli-
Just before its duplicating, it is necessary to pre- cation (Figure 5). After hardening and separating
pare the original cast made from hard stone for from the cast, the parts of the duplication material
duplicating by closing mesiodistal and lingual under- are rinsed in cold water and can be used again in the
cut areas that are not planned for retention by means device (11, 12).
of wax using parallelometer (11, 12). A thin layer
of wax is also placed onto the foundation area of
future partial denture saddles (from 0.4 to 0.7 mm Fabrication process of the original stone cast
thick,depending on the saddle position), which will duplicate from impression material
be replaced by acrylic resin in later course and in
this way enable mechanical bond between the acrylic After hardening of the duplication material, the
resin and metal construction (Figure 1, Figure 2). stone cast is removed from the flask(Figure 6), and
During metal construction fabrication it is nec- the duplication material shows a negative of the cast
essary to have two identical casts, i. e. to duplicate (Figure 7) (11, 12).
the original stone cast. The most reliable process A plastic cone for a future sprue is mounted on
of making a duplicate cast is to take impression of the mandibular cast (Figure 8), and the negative of
the original cast and to produce another cast, a repli- the cast is filled with impression material (mixed
ca, based on this impression. Two identical casts are in a vacuum mixer), from which a duplicate of the
made in the described fashion, the first (original) original stone cast is produced (Figure 9, Figure 10).
stone cast is used for partial denture fabrication and The excess air from the investment material is
for producing the second cast from the impression pushed out in the Wiropress device under pressure
material that is used for modelling and making of (Figure 11) (11).
metal partial denture frameworks (11, 12). The pre- After approximately 30 minutes the investment
pared stone cast is placed into the flask(Figure 3). material cast is separated from the duplication mate-
rial and placed in the furnace at 250°C for another
20 minutes. When the cast is heated, it is soaked in
Materials for cast duplication the liquid that hardens and smoothes the cast sur-
face. This is needed due to the very fragile and
Materials for cast duplication are elastic impres- porous surface of the investment material cast (11).
sion materials adapted for this purpose. They can be
irreversible and reversible (11, 12).
Irreversible materials for cast duplication are Modelling of a future metal construction in
mainly based on alginate, silicone or polyether. Their wax
application is not economical because the duplicat-
ing process requires large quantities of these mate- The elements of a future metal construction are
rials. arranged and modelled on the duplicate cast made
from investment material by means of stockwax
Considerably more acceptable and sufficiently
elements: base, saddles, retention and stability ele-
precise materials for cast duplication are the ones
ments, and even transfer of partial denture loading
based on reversible hydrocolloid, whose active con-
(Figure 12).
stituent is agar. The mentioned materials are very
economical because they can be used several times. There are various stockwax elements on the
Beside reversible hydrocolloid it is necessary to have market (Figure 13). Self-adhesive plastic construc-
a device for heating the material for cast duplication tion elements are also available nowadays.
in which the material is melted (at a temperature After precise modelling of a wax pattern (Fig-
up to 90°C) and cooled down to a temperature of ure 14, Figure 15), from 3.5 to 4 mm thicksprues
40-50°C, and the temperature needed for the mate- made from wax are placed on wax parts (Figure 16,
rial to have the consistency of gel is maintained (Fig- Figure 17).

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Flasking of the duplicated cast with a wax amount that is sufficient for casting of a future restora-
pattern and sprues tion is placed within the primary copper coil. The alloy
in the neutral ceramic bowl/pan represents the sec-
The casts are then placed into the flask(the flask ondary coil of the transformer. When electric current
should be at least 6 to 8 mm wider than the cast) of very high frequency (even above 10000 Hz) is intro-
(Figure 18) and lined with the investment material duced in the copper coil through the central electric-
used for fabrication of the mould in which the molten ity generator that is a constituent part of the device,
alloy is poured later (Figure 19) (11, 12). within relatively large industrial samples of the alloy
The investment material is mixed with water or it produces induced electric current of low voltage, but
original liquid in a certain ratio (in a vacuum mixer), of very high power (a few hundred amperes), which
and it is then poured into the flask. at first heats the alloy very quickly, and then melts it.
After hardening of the material (after 40 min- Since electric current can be induced only in met-
utes), the flaskis placed into a cold furnace and heat- als, the bowl in which the alloy is melted should be
ed (up to a temperature of 250°C, 30-60 minutes), made from nonmetal (ceramic, graphite). The alloy
so that the wax can flow out leaving a hole in which in the ceramic bowl is heated very fast and when it
the molten alloy is poured after glowing the flask. reaches the temperature of its melting point it is
Metal partial denture frameworks are produced in melted (lasting a few tens of seconds). Vapour con-
this way (Figure 20). sisting of the evaporated elements is then created
above the molten alloy in the ceramic pan, which
It is necessary to point out that when chosing the protects it from oxides, which the molten alloy is
investment material (depending on its composition) very prone to. The external tubulous copper coil
it is important that the thermal expansion of the should be watercooled, since whirling currents, as
material corresponds to the shrinkage of the alloy well as radiation of the molten alloy, heat it very
(material expansion and shrinkage coefficients), so strongly. For the actual process of casting the flask
that after pouring the cast is as precise as possible in the glowing furnace should become light red-
and fits tight to the original stone cast, which also -hot at a temperature approx. 1000°C (from 1000-
guarantees that it will fit in the patient’s mouth in -1050°C, casting temperature approx. 1450°C,
the same fashion (11, 12). depending on the manufacturer) (Figure 20). At this
temperature the flaskshould be left in the glowing
furnace for 45 to even 60 minutes, in order to
Fabrication of a metal partial denture frame- achieve this temperature in all parts of the flask.
work of a partial denture and description of
The process of casting is then started, so that the
the casting device
prepared original dental alloy is placed into the ceram-
ic pan and by means of grippers the glowing flaskis
Casting is a very important phase that in narrow
placed into the corresponding bed of a special holder
terms integrates two procedures - the process of
with a casting cone turned towards the ceramic bowl
melting the alloy, after which it is necessary to fill
with the alloy (Figure 21). The lid of the device is
the empty space in the heated investment material
closed, the programme of alloy melting is turned on,
with the molten alloy.
and as soon as it is melted, the underpressure of -0.5
Melting is a process that changes the physical state b is created in the rotation of the pan containing glow-
of the alloy from solid to liquid, and it is performed ing and molten alloy and of the glowing flask. The
by means of electric current. The heating tempera- rotation of the ceramic bowl with the molten alloy and
ture should reach the melting point in the melting of the glowing flaskis activated so that the alloy can
interval of the used dental alloy. It can best be achieved be poured into the empty space of the flaskby means
in casting devices with induced high-frequency elec- of centrifugal force (11, 12). This method of melting
tric current. A casting device has a centrally placed and casting enables safe, fast and precise production
spiral coil of copper tube, through which cooling water of several casts with a homogenous and smooth sur-
flows, and it actually represents the primary coil of the face without visible macroscopic and microscopic
transformer. A ceramic bowl with the alloy in the pores in a certain time. There are casting devices that

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use additional pressure instead of rotation and cen- The first polishing phase consists of electrolytic
trifugal force to press the alloy into the glowing flask. polishing in an electrolytic polishing device. By
means of electrolysis the ions are removed from the
external surfaces of the metal and polishing is per-
Types of alloys for fabrication of a metal formed in this way. The metal casting is placed on
partial denture framework the anode of the device and the cathode is made from
copper. In this way the material is not applied to
The alloy used for fabrication of metal partial the metal surface of the casting, it is removed from
dentures consists mainly of cobalt (62-65%), chro- it electrolytically. The oxides are removed from all
mium (23-31%) and molybdenum (4.5-5.5%). Cob- surfaces evenly by electrolytic polishing, but it does
alt in the alloy enhances good mechanical proper- not result in a high gloss (Figure 26) (18).
ties and reduces the viscosity of the alloy, chromi- The final phase consists of mechanical polishing
um improves the chemical stability of the alloy and (gumming) by various polishing aids that enable pol-
its stability in the mouth, while molybdenum increas- ishing of metal partial denture frameworks to a high
es the chemical stability of the alloy and its elastic- gloss (rubbers and brushes for polishing with paste)
ity and bonds with the excess of unburned carbon (Figure 27).
(increasing the brittleness of the alloy), creating
molybdenum-carbide (Mo6C) (13-16). After finishing it is necessary to checkwhether
the fit of the casting to the original stone cast is tight
Metal partial denture frameworks have recently (Figure 28, Figure 29) and, finally, whether the cast-
been fabricated also from titanium in patients aller- ing has the same fit in the patient’s mouth.
gic to the constituents of cobalt-chromium alloys (17).

Conclusion
Finishing of the cast metal construction
The fabrication procedure of a metal partial den-
After cooling the flask, the investment material ture frameworkof a partial denture is very com-
is broken and the metal partial denture framework plex and requires high precision in the workby both
is taken out (Figure 22). the technician and the dentist.
The remaining investment material and oxides Having good knowledge of all phases of the com-
are removed in the sandblasting device (Figure 23) plex laboratory fabrication contributes to better qual-
and sprues are eliminated by sawing (Figure 24, Fig- ity of fabrication of this prosthetic restoration, since
ure 25). the described way, using always new original alloys,
Sandblasting is performed again after rough fin- guarantees safety and precision that are manifested
ishing of the cast, as well as fine finishing and pol- in a smooth surface of the casting and perfect fit in
ishing of the casting. the mouth.

98 ASC Acta Stomatol Croat, Vol. 37, br. 1, 2003.