The occlusal record is a simple and fast operation, but dentists underestimate its importance to some extent. In fact, the operation is extremely important in the technician's room, because it is necessary to fix the model on the occlusal rack.
Breakthrough the Limitation of Simple Wax
So far, dental wax is still widely used in occlusal recording, mainly because it is cheap and easy to operate: only heating, forming and placing the entrance cavity side by side. On the other hand, this softness is not conducive to dimensional stability.
The longer the time interval between wax production and use, the more likely the occlusal record will experience sudden temperature changes and irreversible damage, or even deformation without detection. If deformation occurs and is not detected, the assembled model will mislead the diagnosis and treatment. Therefore, it is always recommended to make and fix models quickly, but for various reasons, this is sometimes difficult to achieve.
In making occlusal records, attention should be paid to various error risk factors. These factors can be divided into three categories:
Environmental characteristics of oral and maxillofacial system;
Stability characteristics of materials;
Material operation.
The latter two kinds of factors have been considered previously, and only these two kinds of factors can be controlled.
Clinical advantages of silicone rubber for occlusal recording
Recently, several kinds of elastomers have been introduced on the market for recording occlusion. These products are polyvinylsiloxane VPS. Their chemical properties are similar to those of silicone rubber impression materials, but their plasticizing and catalytic components are improved. These two components are the key to the toughness and performance of elastomers.
These improvements also make the materials more versatile, ranging from fixed prostheses to individual prostheses. They are also suitable for making orthodontic and occlusal treatment products. Therefore, various special products have been developed on the basis of this material.
Let's discuss the ideal product characteristics that such materials should ensure. They should ensure strength and volume stability after curing and easy removal from the mouth. On the other hand, they should be very soft before curing (but this should not limit their ease of operation), so that patients can easily occlude, once placed on the dental arch without any special adjustment.
Usually, this kind of material needs a high degree of histocompatibility.  The last feature is also an important feature related to the aforementioned content: accurate occlusion, which is a particularly useful feature in clinical application. In addition, there are other features that are more closely related to the operation process. For example, dental professionals using modern CAD/CAM solutions need such products to be compatible with all major intraoral scanners.