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Sending Impressions
​How to Identify a Good Impression

Achieving a beautiful smile with Orthosnap clear aligners starts with perfect impressions. Since the quality of your impression dictates the fit and therefore the capability to move teeth, the quality of impressions matters. A lot. 

Impression redos damage the patient experience, waste chair time, and cost you money. Avoid this frustration by making sure your dental impressions meet the high-quality standards necessary for Orthosnap technicians to fabricate perfectly fitting aligners. 

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.

Even if you are only treating one arch, send both arches and a bite registration. The lab tech needs to know the location of opposing teeth to prevent hyper-occlusion or inter-arch collision. The bite registration allows us to correct the relationship between upper and lower aligners for bite issues.

Ask the patient to close the teeth where they meet best and keep the bite spread out but heavier on the back teeth.

When it comes to trays, proper sizing is the most important factor. The tray must extend 4 mm beyond the gingival margin and fit all the teeth. It should also extend beyond the terminal teeth. If the tray is too large or too small, it can cause issues that may require a re-make. Use disposable trays as we will not return trays. If the teeth touch the edges of the tray, it is too small. 

To make accurate molds, the impressions must be free of engagers. If your patient has engagers on any teeth, be sure to remove them before taking impressions. 

Use wax to fill in undesirable undercuts. Neglecting this step can cause distortions or tears when removing the impression material. 

Be sure to add the light body material before the heavy body or putty sets. 

To ensure the best impressions, make sure the materials fully set. Here’s a tip: Discard the first inch of material from each new mixing tip. Then, be sure to set a timer based on the instructions for your material. As a safeguard, wait an additional 60-90 seconds beyond what the instructions advise before removing the tray.  

When using a two-step impression method, the most common error is a double impression. To avoid this mistake, consider switching to the simpler and more reliable one-step method. If you prefer the two-step method, we will accept them. Just be sure to cover the putty for the first impression with a plastic sheet and begin the second step before the first one fully sets.  
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Inspecting your impressions to ensure they meet our standards before you send them to our lab can help you avoid costly delays. In fact, it is best to look at them while the patient is still in your office. This way, if you notice any issues, you can remake new ones without having to recall the patient.

The following rules will help you understand what to look for before submitting impressions.

When making impressions, be sure to capture the distal surface. If the distal surface is not captured, the result is ill-fitting aligners. Avoid this common problem by ensuring over half of each of the terminal molars is visible in the impression.

Look for sharp, detailed cusps. Make sure no part of the tray shows through the impression.

If the impression material is thin or damaged, the inaccuracies will compromise aligner fit. Be sure to inspect for warping, damage, bubbles, tears, or separation of heavy and light body material.

Effective tooth movements require adequate retention points. This means the gingival margins must be clear and defined. When taking impressions, be sure to include a minimum of 4 mm of lingual and buccal surfaces outside the gingival margin.

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If you have questions or need to speak with someone at Orthosnap, please reach out to us at support@orthosnap.com.