how to make a provisional smooth and shiny

[accu94672]

Hi. I'm having problems in adding my final touch to multi-unit provisionals.

After I'm done with provisionals, I often notice a few jagged lines on the surface ( not talking about pits or voids ). Certain areas of the surfaces look as if they have been scratched with a piece of wire. What should I do to clean all this up? I already tried painting some acrylic over it but I get the same result again after I trim off any excess acrylic off the surface. I want the provisional to appear consistent throughout the whole surface with one color and no stray marks.

I would also like to know what to use ( and the procedures ) for polishing provisionals.

Thanks in advance for any feedback you can provide.

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[45540]

in our polishing kit we've got a small round acrylic polishing stone that i use on a straight shank slow speed ...

that and a large greenie is pretty much all i use, except maybe the cotton attachment to buff it out at the end ... sorry if that's kind of basic.

 

[12YearOldKid]

I assume you are using acrylic. If I have time I like to use the indirect technique for multiunit FPDs - especially in the anterior.

Before the patient gets there: I do a diagnostic wax-up on a spare cast. Take an alginate of the wax up and poor it up in snapstone. Make a suckdown of this cast to use as a matrix.

While the patient is in the chair: Poor up a quick snapstone of the final impression. Coat liberally with a tinfoil substitute. Fill your matrix with acrylic and load it on the snapstone cast of the final impression. Place rubber bands around the matrix ( NOT over the prepped teeth or pontic areas -- duhhh ) and place the whole thing in a bowl of hot water. A pressure bath or hot water bath is even better if your school has them available.

The acrylic cures much more densely and uniformly using this technique compared to intraoral curing. If you had a nice wax-up and a good tight suckdown you shouldn't have to do any polishing to this thing if you don't want to. It will look like glass. The only areas you have to worry about are trimming and polishing the margins but those are quickly knocked out with a series of polishing wheels.

In the rare instance that I have to do major adjustment to the facial surface (usually because I screwed up somewhere along the way) I like to use a series of acrylic polishing wheels followed by a rag wheel and pumice. Then a ragwheel with acrylic polish. And if I really want that baby to shine I follow up with a clean dry ragwheel - but it has to be absolutely clean; no pumice or any kind of residue or you will get scratches.

But if you use the indirect technique I described and are very carefyl with your wax-up I promise that thing will come out looking like glass.

 

[12YearOldKid]

What kind of matrix are you using to make your provisionals? Some people in my class like to use a putty matrix instead of a suckdown because it allows them to skip pouring up an impression of their waxup, but it just doesn't leave the same sheen on the acrylic that a suckdown matrix does. If you are using a putty matrix, that may be all you need to change to satisfy you. I actually enjoy labwork so I tend to sometimes go a little overboard with it, but my provisionals do look nice.

 

[aphistis]

Clean hands, A rag wheel, and plenty of pumice.

 

[anamod]

For a better shine on your provisonals use a brush and put a thin layer of Singlebond or any other bonding agent and light cure this helps get rid of the chalky look to provisonals

 

[accu94672]

Your feedbacks are all very helpful but I still haven't resolved my foremost problem:

After I remove my provisional from my PVS matrix ( can't use vacuum suckdown for several reasons ), I often get one or two stray marks or lines on the lingual or buccal surfaces. They look like crease lines and fissures. These provisionals are for posterior teeth, by the way.

Polishing it doesn't seem to help. ( or maybe polishing is supposed to get rid of them but I'm not doing it correctly. ) So what should I do?

 

[dental2008]

Your feedbacks are all very helpful but I still haven't resolved my foremost problem:

After I remove my provisional from my PVS matrix ( can't use vacuum suckdown for several reasons ), I often get one or two stray marks or lines on the lingual or buccal surfaces. They look like crease lines and fissures. These provisionals are for posterior teeth, by the way.

Polishing it doesn't seem to help. ( or maybe polishing is supposed to get rid of them but I'm not doing it correctly. ) So what should I do?

What school do you go to?

Not knocking it, but why aren't the row instructors helping you out??? Is there a lack of them or a lack of experienced teachers there?

 

[DrTacoElf]

Your feedbacks are all very helpful but I still haven't resolved my foremost problem:

After I remove my provisional from my PVS matrix ( can't use vacuum suckdown for several reasons ), I often get one or two stray marks or lines on the lingual or buccal surfaces. They look like crease lines and fissures. These provisionals are for posterior teeth, by the way.

Polishing it doesn't seem to help. ( or maybe polishing is supposed to get rid of them but I'm not doing it correctly. ) So what should I do?

could you sandblast and then polish liberally with pumice + ragwheel?

* When i was on an interview this is how most students handled provisionals *