Denture Base Acrylic

For many businesses, every detail of their services and those they seek from others has been scrutinised over the past year. Never has it been more important to optimise quality and efficiency, enabling organisations to boost productivity and bolster profits for short- and long-term stability. As part of this, dental practices will have evaluated the laboratories they work with, including everything from the breadth of services they offer to their turnaround times and the quality of the materials they use.

To ensure that dentists and their teams remain confident in the services you provide, it is important to constantly review and refine both what you do and how you do it. This involves building an effective team and then providing them with the materials they need to meet or even exceed expectations of dentists and patients alike.

Recognising team skill

Any successful dental lab will appreciate the importance of a good team. Their skills and experience are the foundation for delivering products and appliances of outstanding quality. If any of your dental technicians took the opportunity to update their knowledge and undergo virtual training during unavoidable downtime in 2020, it’s important that their new abilities are recognised and utilised. This could help to broaden and strengthen the services available from your lab, enabling you to offer new products or workflows that your clients will appreciate. Alternatively, if your team have gained experience with new materials that have the potential to reduce turnaround times, enhance quality or provide long-lasting reliability, your business can benefit from this too.

Recognising the expertise among the team is also essential for motivation, encouraging them to maintain the highest possible standards. An engaged team is more likely to go that extra mile for their clients, maximising the value provided, encouraging your dentists’ satisfaction and bolstering your reputation as a business worth working with.

Staying up to date

There are many reasons for needing to update the materials used in the lab, only one of which is the developing skill of the team. Other reasons may include changing demands form clients and patients, a restructure of the lab or a greater focus on specialist areas of dentistry. The tools and materials used in the lab therefore need to be reviewed regularly to ensure that you continue to stock the best and most appropriate products for the work you fulfil and the standards you want to meet.

In any case, this means finding materials that work well in your technicians’ hands and that they can trust to deliver the aesthetic, functional and durable results that patients expect. You also need solutions that have been proven to do what they say they’re going to do, that facilitate predicable outcomes and come with excellent customer support. For instance, when fabricating dentures, you need a strong and durable material that gives your clients the utmost confidence in its durability. At the same time, the material needs to be simple to use so as to enable an efficient workflow through the laboratory.

The Acron Hi from Kemdent is a true high impact strength acrylic, ideal for the provision of high-quality dentures. To ensure ease of handling, Acron Hi produces a soft and easily packable ‘dough’ that suits any processing protocols, including injection moulding. The unique Multi-Matrix Technology optimises its fracture and breakage resistance, and its increased stiffness after processing makes trimming and polishing simple. Plus, a low level of residual monomer minimises the risk of allergic reactions for greater patient comfort.

Maximising value

It has never been more important to offer the clinicians you collaborate with and their patients good value. That means quality products with an efficient service and affordable prices. It is essential to remind clients, where necessary, that this is not about cutting costs. Instead, focus should be on the value of services sought. Any laboratory with a highly skilled team, that cares about its clients and employs only the best technologies and materials in the market, will always be a trustworthy partner. All of this will ensure not only quality, but consistent quality, which ultimately is needed to support superior patient care now and for years to come.  

For more information about Acron Hi - High Impact Denture Base Acrylic call 01793 770256

Image by Lee Torrington RT CDT rcs eng

Kemdent manufactures a wide range of tried and trusted laboratory products, but sometimes it can be difficult to decide which option to choose for any specific indication. This article will highlight the main features and benefits of Kemdent's Acron Hi and Acron Express acrylics as identified by just some of their many advocates in the UK.

Acron Hi - ideal for high quality results

Acron Hi is a true high impact strength acrylic which is perfect for the provision of high-quality denture work. It utilises Kemdent's unique Multi-Matrix Technology to produce dentures that are highly resistant to breakage and fracture. It produces a soft packable 'dough' that is ideal for all processing protocols including injection moulding systems because it can be processed using a rapid 30-minute or longer curing cycle in boiling water.

Once mixed, Acron Hi exhibits a relatively soft 'dough stage' compared with its competitors, which tend to be rubbery in consistency. This makes it easier to pack into moulds because it flows more easily and smooothly, an advantage if you are using an injection moulding process. Using Acron Hi ensures a better fit and requires less post-processing work to finish the denture. It also exhibits an increased stiffness, after processing, which makes it easier to trim and polish for most technicians. Finally, many other acrylics can be cured in just 20 minutes but may contain a high level of residual monomer, which can result in allergic reactions and reduce strength of the finished prosthesis. By ensuring a lower level of residual monomer the technician can minimise the risk of allergic reactions and produce dentures that are stronger and less likely to fracture because of increased cross-linking. They can control the level of residual monomer by always ensuring they use the correct powder to liquid mixing ratio. The level can also be reduced by using a slow cure overnight. Tests show that Acron Hi exhibits a much lower level of residual monomer compared with its competitors. Acron Hi is supplied in 'Light Pink Veined' and Original Veined' shades.

Acron Express - for busy commercial laboratories 

Acron Express is a new super-fast dough, heat-cured denture base acrylic designed for the manufacture of full or partial dentures, and is ideal for busy prosthetic laboratories and urgent cases. It takes just seven minutes to reach the dough stage, so laboratories can start packing jobs much sooner. What's more, once it has reached the dough stage, Acron Express stays packable for longer because it has an extended working time of at least 30 minutes at room temperature, allowing laboratories to process more jobs at the same time without loss of quality. Then it can be processed using either a rapid (20 min) or longer cycle in boiling water.

Acron Express produces dentures with exceptional high strength and a high lustre finish. It is easy to trim and polish. This superfast dough acrylic is available in 'Light Pink Translucent' and 'Pink Veined' shades.

Acron Express does not just save technician time and money, when it is used correctly with a good wax-up technique and high-quality denture teeth it will create a denture that offers strength, a more accurate fit, excellent true-to-life appearance and overall comfort for the patient, giving the patient the confidence to smile again.

User feedback

This is what some of Acron Hi's and Acron Express' existing users have to say:

John McKay, Dentures Direct, Glasgow

" I've been using Acron Hi for about two years, prior to that I used Enigma Hi and I use it for all my dentures now. I particularly like how cleanly it comes out of the moulds, which saves me time during the final processing stages. I also like the fact that Acron Hi appears to be significantly harder and has a higher flexural strength than Enigma Hi, another very important consideration"

Martin Waterson, Rax Lane Dental Laboratory, Bridport

"I started using Acron Hi for my private and independent dentures in 2001, prior to that I used Lucitone. I particularly like the working time, colour because it is slightly darker and it's better value for money. Compared to Lucitone, Acron Hi is a bit firmer in consistency and is easier to process"

David Spinks, CDT, Bramerton

"I use both Acron Hi and Express depending upon the clinical situation. I mainly use Acron Hi for partial dentures, though I also use it for some of my full/fulls. I began using it in about 2000, but before that I used Lucitone 199. I particularly like the way Acron Hi bonds to the teeth and its colour. It has a longer dough stage and working time than Lucitone which makes it much better for trial closures. Once processed Acron Hi is easier to finish and polish and you can achieve a much higher polish, which I think is an advantage. It also has a much better shade because it is not orange like Lucitone 199. Before starting to use Acron Express, in 2000, I used either Metrodent or QC20, for most of my cases. I particularly like its light veined colour and the fact that you can achieve a high polish afterwards"

Resident Dental Technician Brian Thomas demonstrates the easy use of Simplex Rapid Acrylic to repair a denture

A timed comparison using Kemdent's Acron Hi and Acron Express Heat Cure Acrylics