Accuracy of Casts produced from 8 Alginates

Abstract

The impression material “Alginate” has been widely used in prosthodontic Dentistry for many years.  So there are many kinds of alginates from several companies.  Some are accepted by American Dental Association but others have not yet been accepted.  This research studies the accuracy of casts produced from 8 kinds of alginates sold in the market.  Only 5 of which are acceptable.

The research measures the different dimension of casts produced from alginate impressions of the standard metal model.  The first result is that the difference of dimension between casts and the standard metal model are significant (p<0.05). Means value of dimension in horizontal plane of casts from unaccepted alginate is in neigborhood of value of the standard metal model but has a higher value of standard deviation.  On the otherhand, the result from one of the accepted brands shoes a lower value of standard deviation.  So the selection of alginate used in Prosthodontic work is very important.  Practicetioners or clinicians should not select alginates by the cost aspect alone.