BASIC PRINCIPLES IN

IMPRESSION MAKING

Devan MM.
Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry, 2005 Jun 1;93(6):503-8.
 CONTENT 2
 Introduction  Forces of retention
 Definition  Factors in stability
 Impression area  Mathematical approach
 Theory of rest impressions  Natural v/s Artificial
 Contacting denture surface dentures
 Retention and Stability  Conclusion
 Strategy of using soft tissue  References
 Means of attachment
 Mucosa contacted but not contained
 Mucostatic school
 Alveolar bone
 INTRODUCTION 3
 The impression would not be a problem if we were taking
impressions of casts.
 The problem is due to the fact that the mouth is lined with
displaceable tissue that varies in degree of displaceability, according
to:
1. its thickness,
2. rigidity,
3. and the point, magnitude, and direction of the forces applied to it.
 DEFINITION 4
 An impression is a registration of tissues of mouth made with
an impression material.
 It is a record, a facsimile of mouth tissues taken at unstrained
rest position or in various positions of displacement.
 IMPRESSION AREA 5
 Impression area is divided into
two parts:
1. the vault-ridge areas
2. the flange-heel areas
 Rest registrations are apt to
result in insufficient saddle
and flange areas resembling
old-time plaster impression
dentures where lowers
especially were flangeless.
 THEORY OF REST IMPRESSIONS 6
1. The laws of hydrostatics tell us that water is incompressible, i.e., you
cannot take a given amount of water and through pressure reduce its
volume.
2. The mucoperiosteum is a semi-solid with over 80 % of water as its
composition, and the mucosa is incompressible by any force of the muscles.
3. While the mucoperiosteum cannot be compressed, it may, however, be
displaced in the absence of confining walls.
4. Any substance, no matter how fluid, when enclosed in a rigid container,
takes on the same rigidity as that container. Thus, soft tissue, provided it is
completely contained, would under these circumstances become as rigid as
bone.
5. Tissue is elastic and will try to recover its unstrained rest form.
 CONTACTING DENTURE SURFACE
7
 When the tissues are completely
contacted, wedging action
cannot take place.
 A relatively rough surface
increases the surface area in
contact with the mucosa; and
this increases the forces of
interfacial surface tension,
which is directly proportional to
the area involved.
 RETENTION AND STABILITY 8
 Stability is that state wherein forces
that tend to cause motion are
successfully resisted without a loss of
equilibrium.
 Retention may be defined as that state
of a denture wherein functional forces
are unable to destroy the attachment
existing between the denture and the
mucoperiosteum.
 If a denture does not move noticeably
in function, it is said to be stabilized.
 STRATEGY OF USING SOFT TISSUE
9
 A denture may be supported, suspended, or sustained by the
mucosal base in one of three ways:
1. A denture is supported when the force is basewise and
perpendicular, resulting in compressive loads.
2. A denture is suspended when the force is counterbasewise,
resulting in tensile loads.
3. A denture is sustained when the force is basewise in one area and
simultaneously counterbasewise in another area. This results in
compressive, tensile, and shear stresses.
 A denture is attached to the mucosa than to say that the denture rests
on the mucosa.
 MEANS OF ATTACHMENT 10
 The means of attachment are, the forces of:
1. Interfacial surface tension,
2. Atmospheric pressure,
3. A combination of both
 By means of the interposed salivary film, a denture is attached to
the mucosa, as two pieces of moistened glass would be attached,
through interfacial surface tension.
 By means of rarified air spaces between the denture and the
mucosa, a denture is attached to the mucosa, as a suction cup is
attached to a windshield of a car, through the force of atmospheric
pressure.
 Carrying a large deep air chamber in the middle of the hard palate, a
well-adapted denture is attached to the mucosa through both 11 the
forces of surface tension and atmospheric pressure.
 In function, atmospheric pressure is superior to interfacial surface
tension as a retentive force, for forces horizontal as well as parallel
to the mean mucosal plane are resisted.
 Interfacial surface tension will resist only forces perpendicular to the
axes of surface tension forces.
 Attachment through atmospheric pressure is usually transient, for air
chambers and reliefs tend to fill in with tissue or saliva.
 The resistance to detachment by horizontal forces that vacuum
chambers and reliefs provide may not prove physiologic to alveolar
bone.
 MUCOSA CONTACTED BUT NOT CONTAINED
12
 It is well to keep in mind that month tissues including the mucosa may
be contacted, but it can hardly be said that they can be contained.
 A denture cannot act as a container for mouth tissues in the same sense
that a hypodermic syringe acts as a container for the anaesthetic solution.
 For then Pascal’s laws would apply—namely,
1. that any substance, no matter how fluid when enclosed in a rigid
container, takes on the same rigidity as that container, and
2. that pressure applied to a confined liquid is transmitted undiminished
to all parts and acts in all directions.
 If a denture could serve as a true container of mouth tissues, then it
would follow that soft tissue would be as good as bone in stabilizing a
denture.
 MUCOSTATIC SCHOOL 13
 Soft tissue should be registered in an impression in unstrained rest
position, any other position will lead to dislodgement of the denture.
 Free movements of tissue are limited by two factors: Its Thickness &
Rigidity.
 The mucostatic school argues that soft tissue has permanent shape. This
is a half-truth.
 It has a definite shape at any given time and when distorted will attempt
to regain it.
 Mucostatics contends that all tissue acquires rigidity of form when
completely contacted.
 It is conditioned by the point, magnitude, and direction of masticatory
forces applied to it.
 ALVEOLAR BONE 14
 Preserve alveolar bone, and the soft tissues will take care of
themselves.
 All bone and especially cancellous alevolar bone is more resistive to
compressive loads than to tensile and shear loads.
 After mucosal displacement, a strained equilibrium is established,
and alveolar bone is subjected to tensile and shear stresses.
 FORCES OF RETENTION 15
 It depends primarily on the forces of adhesion, cohesion, and
surface tension.
 Attachment of a denture to the mucosa is possible because both
tissue and denture base materials can become wet, which means that
its molecules will adhere to H2O molecules.
 Atmospheric pressure plays a roll in retention only when a vacuum
chamber or a relief is present.
 When the denture moves under masticatory loads, the function of
border tissue and roll is to enable the border tissues to follow the
movement and thus keep out saliva, as well as air.
 If adhesion fails, it is probably due
to extreme torque and failure of the 16
border tissues to maintain contact.
 In the presence of mucosal torque, a
relief in the palatal area will help
retention. Palatal relief prevents the
vault from acting as a fulcrum and
permits the denture to shift bodily,
the movement being more
translatory than rotary.
 When the denture shifts bodily, the
cheek on the working side comes to
the rescue and helps to stop the
movement.
 FACTORS IN STABILITY 17
 Stability begins with the impression, by the avoidance of noticeable
displacement in ridge-vault areas.
 The important problems are the following:
1. the inclination of the flanges,
2. the form, size, and arrangement of the posterior teeth,
3. the position of the posterior teeth in relationship to the foundational
centre,
4. the form of the polished palatal surface.
 The impression should register some degree of displacement, especially
at the borders.
 This will eventuate in a peripheral seal which will better prevent
dislodgement.
 MATHEMATICAL APPROACH 18

According to Synge, the increase in displaceability of

an incompressible membrane placed between two rigid
bodies is directly proportional to the cube of the
increase in thickness, or to the cube of the decrease in
rigidity
 NATURAL V/S ARTIFICIAL DENTURES
19
 Both are attached to bone, one by means of the periodontal membrane,
the other by means of the mucoperiosteum.
 The periodontal membrane can resist displacement much more readily
than the mucoperiosteum.
 If we arbitrarily assume the mean thickness of the edentulous mucosa to
be five times that of the periodontal membrane and its rigidity to be
one-half, it will follow that 1/216th part of the force required to displace
a natural tooth will displace an artificial denture.
 That is, the stabilizing capacity of the mucoperiosteum in the presence
of a horizontal stress component is only 1/216th part of the stabilizing
capacity of the periodontal membrane.
 CONCLUSION 20
 A registration other than at rest should be for purposes of
expediency only, for alveolar bone is best preserved with rest
registrations.
 Rest registrations in the impression must be combined with
flange and tooth forms and placement that result in compressive
loads.
 Otherwise the degree of mucosal displacement will be too great
and denture dislodgement imminent.
 REFERENCES 21

 Devan MM. Basic principles in impression making. Journal of

Prosthetic Dentistry. 2005 Jun 1;93(6):503-8.
 22

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