Accuracy of addition silicones as a function of technique

Both addition and condensation silicones produced stone dies that were larger in diameter and shorter in height than the tooth preparation. For both materials, there was little change in the distance between stone die preparations compared with the standard. The most significant difference between types of silicone was that condensation silicones produced significantly shorter dies (-0.24% to -0.37%) than addition silicones (-0.08%). Among addition silicones, Cinch produced more than twice as much vertical change (-0.16%) than the other three products (-0.06%). Since castings made from a short die will not seat completely on the prepared tooth, these results support the use of three of the four addition silicones tested. The same accuracy of impressions was achieved for all techniques (that is, putty/wash, single mix, and double mix) when addition silicones were used, whereas the putty/wash technique produced the most accurate dies for the condensation silicones. The custom tray produced dies that were much more accurate in vertical dimensions (-0.03%) than the stock trays (-0.15% to -0.21%). Thus the custom tray is the impression tray of choice, even for addition silicones, which produce relatively little polymerization shrinkage and are dimensionally stable.