A new Vinylsiloxanether-material for Impressions of Implants and Natural Teeth: A Prospective, Clinical Randomized Trail

Identium® is a new impression material, which was launched in the dental market by Fa. Kettenbach (Eschenburg, Germany) at the beginning of 2009. This new material is a Vinylsiloxanether that is a material-scientific combination of Polyether and Vinylpolysiloxan, i. e. A-silicone. The material scientific data presented for this impression material were promising, and therefore the new material was tested in the present clinical study against the market leader of polyether materials, Impregum™ (Fa. 3M Espe, Seefeld, Germany). In this pilot-study 20 test persons with comparable clinical conditions (3-5 implants in the side tooth area with remaining anterior teeth) were randomly divided into two groups with equal gender distribution: 10 test persons for the Impregum™-group and 10 test persons for the Identium®-group. With a standardised questionnaire, the subjective appraisals of the test persons, the dentists as well as the dental technicians concerning the impression material used were taken and the results were compared with the clinical fit of the implant-single-crowns made with the respective impression material. The results of the study showed that the clinical precision and fit of the crowns of the Identium®-group and those of the Impregum™-group were comparable (Chi2-Test). The results taken from the standardised questionnaires indicated a statistically significant superiority of the new material as compared to Polyether concerning the subjective appraisals of the taste (p = 0.0007) by the test person, the clinical handling (p = 0.0001) and the visibility of the details (p = 0.0012) by the dentist as well as the dissolving of the plaster models out of the impression (p = 0.0057) by the dental technician. Taking into account the limited scope and the restrictions of this clinical study, the results suggest Vinylsiloxanether being equal or better in comparison to Polyether when evaluated as a whole by patients, dentists and dental technicians.