An Investigation of the Effect of Modifying and Reusing Impression Copings on Transfer of Implant Analog Position and Angulation

Abstract

The aim of this research was to determine whether sterilization and reutilization of impression copings had an impact on the accuracy of casts made for multiimplant restorations. Four master casts embedded with five implant analogs were fabricated. Polyvinyl siloxane (PVS) impressions of the master cast with copings attached to the analogs were made and poured in dental stone. The impression copings were subjected to cleaning and sterilization. These processes were repeated 30 cycles for each of the two groups of five impression copings: one without modification and one with modification that included air abrasion and PVS adhesive. A coordinate measuring machine (CMM) was used to measure relative angles and distances between the reference analog and analogs. The relative angles and distances measured on the stone casts were compared to the master resin cast to obtain positional and angular displacements. For impression copings that were not modified, a significant difference was detected for both positional and angular displacements. For impression copings that were modified, a significant change was observed only for positional displacement. The maximum discrepancies measured for positional and angular displacements after 30 cycles of reuse were only 81 μm and 0.46°, respectively, regardless of the modification. Within the limitations of this study, unmodified impression copings that have undergone 30 cycles of cleaning and sterilization appeared to incur more impression inaccuracy than those impression copings that were modified by airborne-particle abrasion and PVS adhesive. Impression copings used in this study can likely be recycled up to 30 times without reducing the accuracy of the impression to a level that may be considered clinically significant.