Die Spacer for Implant Crown and Bridge Cases?

posted in Restoration of Dental Implants, Implant Supported Fixed Bridges, en

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Dr. K. asks:
When I send my crown and bridge cases to the dental laboratory, I specify how many coats of die spacer I want placed on my master dies. I used to work in a dental laboratory. Should we be doing the same thing for implant crown and bridge cases? For cement-retained cases on custom abutments should we be asking for more die spacer on tall abutments than short abutments? How should we manage standard machined abutments with a machined fit to the coping? The advantage of a machined fit between abutment and coping is the precision of the fit. But where is there room for the cement? If the components fit too precisely or too tightly, where is there room for cement? I am very perplexed about this problem. When I discussed this with my dental laboratory, the head technician told me that he recommends no die spacer for any implant crown and bridge.








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2 Responses to “ Die Spacer for Implant Crown and Bridge Cases? ”

  • Steven Campbell May 12th, 2009

    I completely agree with your post. Whenever we make cement retained restorations in our laboratory we always apply 3 coats of 20 micron spacer to allow adequate space for cement. If inadequate spacer is provided it can cause fit problems but also excess cement can be forced out at the junction and we know that cement is likely to ruin your whole restoration when left sub gingival. We have found from feedback supplied by our surgeons that 3 coats of 20 micron is a good cement gap which allows great fit and doesn’t cause the crown to de bond (although we always incorporate an anti rotation slot into that abutments for crown/bridge retention).

  • robert56 May 16th, 2009

    It is a big question again
    Some companies have preformed parts that have built in die spacer and some do not. Generally , cementedunites that have premade copings do not need further spacer. Unless some thing has been adjusted, that area may need spacer on it. Screwed crown abutments that are then used for cemented crowns need spacer as the plastic burnout copings do not have built in spacer.
    Ask for a highly technical rep from the company that you are using

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