Tech tip: More helpful tips about impressions

I know we've talked about impressions before—and recently, too—but I thought it might still be really helpful to show all of our doctors a few examples of inaccurate impressions and the distortions they cause. Nobody's more familiar with impression problems than our prescreening department, so we asked them to share some models poured up from rejected impressions so you could see examples of common problems that can occur.

Take a look:

Common impression problems

All of the impressions in this document would probably lead to inaccurate aligners that simply wouldn't fit.

So please, keep these tips in mind:

• Use plenty of PVS material. Too much is better than too little.
• Use the right size tray. If it's too small, the teeth can touch the edges. Make sure your tray reaches beyond the most distal tooth in the arch without touching the front teeth.
• Don't move the material while it sets. This can cause subtle distortions that are hard to spot until you get aligners that don't fit.
• Leave the tray in long enough. You can add an extra minute to the recommended final set time just to be safe. Use a timer to make sure you never remove an impression early.
• Don't wait too long to add the light body. Don't let the putty or heavy body harden completely before covering it with light body and finishing the impression.

And here are our nifty impression guides and videos again, if you'd like a refresher, or if you'd like to pass them along to someone else:

One-step PVS impressions (our favorite!)

Two-step putty impressions

Bonus tip!

We recommend scheduling appointments with your patient after you receive an email notifying you that their aligners have shipped. Shipping dates on treatment plans are just estimates; your patients will be very frustrated if they show up at your office and their new aligners aren't there.

That's it for me this week. As always, contact your account rep if you have any questions.