Accuracy and stability of impression materials subjected to chemical disinfection - a literature review.

Disinfection of impressions by immersion or spraying with disinfecting solutions is considered nowadays mandatory for effective infection control. The purpose of this review was to examine existing evidence on the effects that chemical disinfection may have on critical qualities of impressions, namely dimensional accuracy and stability over time. A PubMed search was conducted to include original laboratory research articles written in English, published between 1980 and 2005 in peer-reviewed journals and investigating the effect of chemical disinfection, by immersion or spraying, on the dimensional changes that the impression materials experience after setting. Studies were also sought manually, by tracing the references cited in the retrieved articles. The reports on dimensional changes of disinfected impression materials, although rather numerous, are difficult to compare and analyze because of variations of the experimental design. The investigations broadly agree that the disinfection process does not generally affect the dimensional integrity of the impressions, in spite of the statistically significant differences occasionally found. However, the immersion in the disinfecting solution encourages water absorption phenomena in the case of the so-called hydrophilic impression materials, especially after the long-term immersion. Chemical interactions between impressions and disinfectants may occur, but they do not appear to influence the dimensional behaviour of the former. The overall effect of the disinfection is influenced not only by the changes experienced by the impression per se, but also by the alterations of the acrylic tray containing the impression and of the gypsum product poured in it.