If you’ve ever bitten down into something soft, such as a stick of fudge or a juicy peach, you may have been able to see your bite mark left behind afterwards. In fact, this is often how people become aware of a slight misalignment in their front teeth, or a chip they had not yet spotted.
The same principle is used by dentists when repairing your teeth, by taking ‘dental impressions’ to use when creating crowns, dental implants and bridges. Put simply, a dental impression is a cast or mould taken from your teeth by having you bite down on a horseshoe-shaped tray of soft casting material known as ‘alginate’.
Intraoral Scanning for 3D Dental Impressions
More recently, 3D scanning has enabled dentists to take an even more accurate image of the shape of your teeth and the space around them, known as a 3D intraoral impression. It’s fast, easy, and many patients find it more comfortable than biting into a tray of alginate.
Accurate dental impressions ensure that any false teeth and dental implants are a good fit for your mouth, reducing the risk of uncomfortable rubbing and irritation.
3D Dental Impressions for Teeth Whitening
There’s also an important role of dental impressions for teeth whitening, and your first appointment for any teeth whitening procedure may include your dentist taking accurate 3D impressions from your mouth.
A week or two later, you can collect custom-made clear aligners from the practice, which help to improve the contact between your teeth and the whitening gels. Ten Dental offer this as part of our Enlighten teeth whitening procedure, a long-lasting whitening treatment that promises to achieve Vita shade B1.
One of the big benefits of dental impressions for teeth whitening is that you can wear your aligners at home, so there’s less need to come into your local Ten Dental practice to undergo any treatment.
Impressions for False Teeth
Dental impressions for false teeth help to make sure any new teeth, bridges, crowns and dental implants fit comfortably alongside your own remaining teeth.
This helps to reduce gum irritation due to rubbing, but also makes sure there are no gaps between your natural and false teeth, giving you an even smile and reliable chewing ability.
When you get custom false teeth made, 3D dental scanning also allows the dentist to create false teeth that are the right size and shape, so that they don’t look different from the rest of your smile.
This can be combined with accurate colour photographs of your natural teeth to create false teeth that blend in, instead of standing out as an unnatural dazzling white.
Do I Need Dental Impressions?
If you need dental impressions for your procedure, we will let you know and can arrange a convenient time for you to come in and provide an intraoral impression – often we will do this as a fast and routine part of your initial consultation.
The procedure is completely painless and non-invasive, so there’s absolutely nothing to worry about, and it’s all part of our commitment to providing the highest standards of service at Ten Dental+Facial. Call your nearest dental clinic at Balham, Clapham and Wandsworth for an appointment!