Visco-elastic properties of four currently used tissue conditioners

About 60% of complete denture wearers experience a mostly painless inflammation of the palatal mucosal membrane. Especially prosthetic trauma and Candida albicans infection are assumed as aetiological factors. The treatment can be prosthetic or medicamentous, dependent on the cause. In this connection tissue conditioners could be very effective by their visco-elastic properties. Four tissue conditioners have been examined (Coe Comfort, FITT, Ivoseal, Visco Gel) for their impression softness and elastic recovery. All tests have been done on 20 mm specimens. The length of the specimens was measured during a 10 min compression and a 60 min relaxation. Eight ageing times have been taken into consideration. From the results large differences appear between the various tissue conditioners. Two main groups can be distinguished. FITT and Ivoseal are harder materials, whereas Coe Comfort and Visco Gel are softer. The ageing time has a clear hardening influence especially on Visco Gel. Visco Gel appears to be the best tissue conditioner by its relative plasticity during the first hours and its elastic behaviour during a longer ageing period. The clinical relevance of these materials is certainly not proved by this study. Further research will show this.