dental impression

Hi,

A stupid question but friend of mine asked me something yesterday and I am not sure about my answer.

There are some teeth whitening kits on the market that provide custom trays (like this one Teeth Whitening by Brighter Image ):

Wth the box, the clients receive 2 putty of impression material (alginate ?) to mix in a plastic tray and the clients mail the impression tray to the company.

What method do you think they use to produce the custom tray ? look basic but effective.

Thanks

Fred

Hi Fred.

I haven't had any actual experience with these kits, however looking at the website, the 'custom tray' appears to be a standard plastic tray (they probably provide a few sizes) and then a polyvinyl siloxane putty used. I hope the 'clients' have better luck taking their own impressions than I did taking my first few on patients!

Thanks Steve,

Happy New year.

yes looks like PVS. What methodology of final impression do you think they use to create the custom tray ? must be fast and cost effective I suppose.

cheers

Unless I am misunderstanding the process, I don't think a custom tray is used at all. From what I can see, they simply use a stock standard plastic tray (like an alginate tray) for the impression. This is then sent to the lab. However, I could be wrong...