ACRYL
er of the World
“too loose” is our biggest clinical
challenge that we hear in our office, day in
and day out. It’s easy to make most of our
devices more loose; we’re good at this as
dentists, but it’s a bit more challenging to
make most MRD’s tighter…….unless you
made it with
ThermAcryl! Just heat it up, seat it fully in
the mouth, hold steady to a count of ten,
then tease halfway off. Reseat.Hold to a
county of twenty. Tease all the way
off. Reseat. Hold to a count of 30, then remove and place in cool water.
The
device is now sufficiently
retentive. It’s that easy.
-You can always make it
fit. Add more. Trim some away
with a scalpel. Use it to extend
a border and make a custom
Impression tray. Thermacryl
has many “other uses” and it
seems we find a new one every
day. We used it the other day
to put behind the hook on an old
TAP 3 because the screw was
stripped and backing up during
the night. Much easier to
remove than
acrylic once we got the replacement screw
ready to change out. Heck, it’s holding the
transducer on my trolling motor on my bass
boat together! No joke.
Disadvantages:
It can be difficult to work with, especially the
first couple times. ThermAcryl has a steep
learning curve. Make no bones about it,
and most dentists never get over it.
They try one device, struggle, and then
give up. (We call them wimps here in
Texas). Please, give it an all star effort.
You’ll be glad you did, and your patients
will appreciate it.
Its physical properties means it picks up
a few more odors, making it a little more
difficult to keep looking pretty and
smelling clean. (Try weekly baths of
SUMMARY
Use a good lab who has experience
working
with
ThermAcryl.
Insist that they
pre-fit the device to the
models. This saves significant
chair time when seating the
device
and
shortens
the
learning curve significantly.
Give ThermAcryl serious
consideration f or patients
who are getting dental work
done or will get it done in
the near future.
Consider ThermAcryl on
patients
with
retention
issues
(short,
straight
teeth).
Keep some around the
house. You’ll be amazed at
all the “extra” uses you’ll
find for it.
50/50 water and peroxide or a sonic
cleaner.)
It will, as it ages, become brittle, and
does not respond to heating and refitting
as it did in its younger days. It will
delaminate from the underlying acrylic
or biocryl and break off in pieces. Time
to remove and bond a new layer (as
above).
It does NOT respond well to a bur. It heats up
quickly under a bur and gunks up
everything. Don’t even pick up a
handpiece. We do ALL trimming with a Bard
Parker and either a #10 or #15 straight
Blade. Careful. Remember those things are
sharp.