Using Thermo Clone from Ultradent to create perfect impressions

Many factors contribute to the accuracy of impressions, and impression materials can often make or break a restoration. In order to take perfect impressions and create great fitting restorations, Dr. Michael A. Miyasaki, owner of Miyasaki Dental in Sacramento, California, prefers to use Thermo Clone^® VPS impression material from Ultradent Products. By using the material, Miyasaki is able to deliver excellent impressions at a lower cost without compromising on quality.

When did you start to use Thermo Clone and why?

We started using it this year. A good impression - in material or digitally captured - is key to everything we do with indirect restorations. If you don’t have a good impression, nothing else matters, so we are always trying new things and Thermo Clone came across my radar. I tried it and liked it. We haven’t had any problems using it, and it has performed well.

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What do you like best about Thermo Clone VPS? How does it compare to other materials?

Because it is hydrophilic, we can make great impressions the first time. We have used it with large full-arch cases and in fields where there was some bleeding and fluids. We still got a good impression and great-fitting restorations.

It also smells good, which translates into a better taste for the patients. The patients like it because of that. It comes in a variety of set times and viscosities to match the preference of the clinician, and I find the colors are easy to read.

Two properties - tear strength and elastic recovery - work very well with Thermo Clone. Around the thin areas or the sulcus where we are trying to capture detail, some impression material - if it’s not strong enough - will tear when we remove it from the mouth. So, even though we had the details we needed in the impression material while it was still in the mouth, we lost that detail when we removed it. Thermo Clone, I have found, has great tear strength. And the elastic recovery is just great. When you pull it out of the mouth, Thermo Clone can pull over the contours of the teeth and go back to its original shape.

Thermo Clone features thermal-accelerated setting, which means outside the mouth it isn’t setting fast. But once you put it in the mouth and it is in that warm environment, the heat of the mouth accelerates the set. It’s also thixotropic, meaning it flows well under pressure, but then once you stop pushing it, it holds its shape. We can load our tray and place it in the mouth and the material will flow. In the oral cavity, the warmth activates the thermal acceleration feature helping it set quickly, and the properties of Thermo Clone mentioned above help us get accurate impressions.

What have been the results and/or patient responses?

We don’t want to compromise on an impression material because that could affect the final fit of the restoration. I haven’t experienced anything but good-fitting restorations using Thermo Clone. The patient response has been excellent as well. As I said earlier, patients like it because it doesn’t have that bad taste. Patients just hate having to redo the “goopy stuff.” When we are able to make the impression the first time with Thermo Clone we have a happier patient, and I’m happier, too.

What benefits to your practice have you seen since using Thermo Clone?

Time savings when you get the impression the first time. An accurate impression also saves us time during the delivery of the dental work. If it’s accurate, then we have fewer remakes, saving us time. That’s fantastic because it drives the practice crazy when we have to send something back because it doesn’t fit, which is wasted time.

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Also, cost-wise, we are always looking for things that are a good value. Today, with the constraints of insurance reimbursement, it is difficult to raise our fees even as the cost of doing business rises. Thermo Clone, compared with some of the other materials out there, is about 30 percent less, which is nice. Using Thermo Clone I can keep my supply costs down and increase my efficiency, which is good for my practice and our patients. Controlling the cost without compromising quality with Thermo Clone - that’s a big win.

Why would you recommend this product to your colleagues?

Because of everything I mentioned: the cost, the ease of use and the accuracy that we have observed using it. We need to provide good impressions to the lab. The Clinician’s Report in March 2015 said dental laboratories reported that up to 90 percent of impressions don’t have ideal characteristics. The bottom line is it is important for us to use good impression material like Thermo Clone so we don’t compromise what is right for our patients