Taking impressions

Achieving a beautiful smile with OrthoSnap clear aligners starts in your office, with impressions.

Why good impressions are critical to outcome success

The best success comes from perfectly fitting aligners. Since technicians create the aligners based on the dental impressions you provide, the quality of impressions is critical to outcome success.

Less than perfect dental impressions produce less than perfect aligners. More than a few times, our lab has had to request new impressions. This holds true for initial submission and revisions.

Imagine having a patient excited about getting started on the road to a beautiful smile, and you have to call them back in to redo the impressions. Not only is that inconvenient for your patient, but it delays treatment. Most importantly, you lose time and money.

Avoid this frustration by making sure your dental impressions meet the high-quality standards necessary for OrthoSnap technicians to fabricate perfectly fitting aligners.

The anatomy of a good impression

Use the proper impression material

To begin manufacturing aligners, we must receive VPS, PVS, or polyether impressions. Plaster models can chip or break, and alginate can dry out and distort. Therefore, while plaster models or alginate impressions allow us to evaluate a case, we cannot produce aligners with these molds.

Also, use plenty of material. Remember, too much is better than not enough.

We recommend using a top wash (light body) on top of a base. Please reach out to [e-mail] if you would like some recommendations for materials or some of our favorite techniques.

Please note it is important NOT to use alginate, or to send us plaster models. We will need PVS impressions in order to start manufacturing.