Flexible partials – more flexibles than ever!
In the past flexible appliances were considered temporary because they could not be successfully added to or repaired. Moskey Dental Laboratory has two products to make “flexibles” less temporary. Visiclear and Duraflex can be repaired, added to, and adjusted to make short term appliances longer term successes. How? Visiclear and Duraflex is a thermoplastic and will bond with itself, unlike Valplast and other nylon based materials. Duraflex and Visiclear allow us to keep thickness to approximately 1 mm for a comfortable, lightweight, yet retentive appliance.
Duraflex is a tissue shaded material that comes in four shades; pink, medium pink, dark pink, and tissuetone pink.
Visiclear is just that, a barely visible material due to its clear structure. It allows the underlying tissue and enamel to show through the material for a better esthetic result.
The “Flexi-uni” (flexible unilateral) is a great alternative to the traditional bulky and unstable flipper. It snaps into place and stays there until the patient takes it out. It can be used to replace anterior or posterior teeth, and is a great alternative to the often bite-opening Essix appliance as an implant healing temporary.
Both materials share the same intra oral requirements as other flexible and partial denture designs:
1. a minimum of 4mm of inter-arch clearance to allow for denture base thickness and prosthetic tooth positioning with properly formed diatorics.
2. desirable undercut in the gingival one-third of the abutment teeth as the retention is in the form of “wings” (as opposed to clasps) that engage the buccal undercut at or near the cervical margin. Such placement improves retention and esthetics. In certain cases we may extend an appliance posteriorly to engage available lingual undercuts.
3. an anterior and posterior abutment for unilateral appliances.
4. standard or premium denture teeth, as economy teeth may not withstand the pressure during processing.
Anything less requires a different treatment plan.
Patient care of their Duraflex/Visiclear appliance:
- These materials are stain resistant and may be cleaned with any over the counter denture cleaner.
- Brushing the appliance is not recommended and should not be required, but if it becomes necessary only use a very soft bristle tooth brush.