A Comparative Study to Evaluate the Compression Resistance of Different Interocclusal Recording Materials: An In Vitro Study.

Recording and transferring of accurate existing occlusal records is of prime importance for a successful restoration. An ideal occlusal registration material should provide minimal resistance to mandibular closure during the registration of maxillomandibular relationships. Interocclusal bite registration materials are partly responsible for accurate precision and occlusal quality of final prosthetic restorations when used for mounting casts on the articulators. The aim of selecting this study is to compare different types of recent interocclusal recording materials and to find the best among them which can resist a constant compressive load and will give the least inaccuracies. In the present study compressive resistance of four interocclusal recording materials viz. Imprint bite, Vitual refill, Jet bite and Ramitec at various thickness (2, 5, 10 and 20 mm) when subjected to a constant compressive load of 25 N was studied. The thickness of the interocclusal recoding materials were selected to simulate various clinical situations. For standardization, the specimens were stored at room temperature for 24 h to simulate the time between clinical and laboratory phases, N = 20 specimens from each group was selected (making a total sample size of N = 80). The SPSS version 17 has been used, two way ANOVA was applied to compare different types of recent interocclusal recording materials, p value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. A total of 80 samples were fabricated. Results of two-way analysis of variance (p ≤ 0.05) indicated that there was a significant difference in compressive resistance among the materials of each thickness. The 2 mm thickness specimens showed the least compression and 20 mm thickness specimen showed maximum compression under a constant load of 25 N for all the four materials tested. Virtual Refill bite registration material showed the least compression value than Imprint bite polyvinylsiloxane registration material, Ramitec polyether bite registration material and Jet bite polyvinylsiloxane registration material with negligible error of 0.04 mm found in 2 mm thickness. The results of foregoing study showed that Virtual refill having greater resistance to compression than other interocclusal recording material at various thickness. It exhibit minimal distortion during compression and give clinician the opportunity to make only minimal adjustments to the restorations that were delivered from the laboratory and avoid unnecessary use of chairtime, or repetition of some clinical and technical stages.