A comparative study of the centrifugal and vacuum-pressure techniques of casting removable partial denture frameworks

A study was undertaken to evaluate two techniques for casting accuracy on removable partial denture frameworks: centrifugal casting and vacuum-pressure casting. A standard metal die with predetermined reference points in a horizontal plane was duplicated in refractory investment. The casts were waxed, and castings of nickel-chrome alloy were fabricated by the two techniques. Both the casts and the castings were measured between the reference points with a measuring microscope. With both casting methods, the differences between the casts and the castings were significant, but no significant differences were found between castings produced by the two techniques. Vertical measurements at three designated points also showed no significant differences between the castings. Our findings indicate that dental laboratories should be able to use the vacuum-pressure method of casting removable partial denture frameworks and achieve accuracy similar to that obtained by the centrifugal method of casting.