Dimensional change of impression materials for dental prothesis using different measuring methods

The aim of this study was to verify the effectiveness of alternative techniques for measuring the linear dimensional change of molds obtained by different impression materials. A stainless-steel die containing three lines was used to get the impressions. The impression materials were handled according to the manufacturers' instructions. After gelation/polymerization time, the molds (n=12) were stored for 30 minutes and the lines were subsequently measured using: a microscope (Olympus Measuring Microscope STM; Olympus Optical Co) with a 30x magnification (MM, control group), a digital caliper (Mitutoyo Digimatic; Kawasaki) (DC) and digitization using a digital camera (Canon EOS Rebel 3Ti; Canon)  (DI). For each mold, a mean of the length of the lines was obtained. For each impression material, the difference in the length between the metallic matrix and the mold was considered as linear dimensional change (%). The data were submitted to the non-parametric Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, followed by one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) for each material, and the means were compared by the Tukey test (α=0.05). The DI group promoted values of dimensional accuracy without significant differences with the control group (MM), except for the putty-body condensation silicone. The DC group showed significant differences for MM and DI groups for all impression materials tested. The DI group showed to be a reliable methodology (Standard error of the mean <10%) to measure the linear dimensional change of all impression materials. The DI group presented molds with linear dimensional change values without significant differences with MM group, except for the putty-body addition silicone. The digitization is a reliable methodology to evaluate the linear dimensional changes of molds made with impression materials, except for the putty-body elastomeric impression materials. Key words: Dimensional Measurement Accuracy; Dental impression materials; Microscopy