Radiographic Appearance of Interocclusal Record Materials for Cone Beam Computed Tomography-Guided Implant Surgeries

To select an ideal interocclusal record material for cone beam computed tomography (CBCT)-guided implant surgery based on the material's radiodensity on the scan.

Twelve commonly used interocclusal record materials were used for this investigation: two were waxes, one was polyether, and nine were polyvinyl-siloxane-type materials. A scan template was fabricated by duplicating existing dentures in Ortho-Jet acrylic resin mixed with 30% barium powder for the teeth and 10% barium powder for the denture base between the teeth and the tissue. An interocclusal record was fabricated with each material, and the same template was used to obtain a CBCT scan with an ICAT machine (Imaging Sciences International) at 0.3 voxel and 14-bit depth settings. Twelve CBCT scans were obtained and analyzed. The radiopacity of the barium teeth was used as a control and was compared with the opacity of the 12 materials using a paired t test. A post hoc analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was used to compare the densities of the various materials with each other.

There was a statistically significant difference between the radiopacity of barium teeth (gray value: 1,959.475) and that of Modelling Wax (gray value: 750; P = .0026), Aluwax (gray value: 795.22; P = .0022), Blu-Bite CT (gray value: 1,105; P = .005), Ramitec (gray value: 1,105.3; P = .08), Memosil 2 (gray value: 1,202; P = .01) followed by Reprosil (gray value: 1,407.73; P = .01). Compared with the barium teeth, there was no statistically significant difference between the densities of Futar D (gray value: 1,866.5; P = .51), Jet Bite (gray value: 1,660.04; P = .08), Lab-Putty (gray value: 1,402.14; P = .19), and Memoreg 2 (gray value: 1,754.72; P = .1). The highest radiodensity was seen with Blu-Mousse (gray value: 2,949; P = .007) and Take 1 (gray value: 2,229.85; P = .025), which were also significantly different from the density of the barium teeth but in the opposite direction, making them more opaque.

Within the limitations of this in vitro study, the most radiolucent appearance of Modelling Wax, Aluwax, Memosil 2, Blu-Bite CT, and Ramitec made them the suitable materials of choice of those tested, as the interocclusal registration record during CBCT scanning allowed clear visualization of barium teeth.