LABORATORY PROCEDURES
INVOLVED IN CONSTRUCTION OF
RPD
Lt Col. Dr Qamar Ishfaque
Department of Prosthodontics
AFID
Laboratory Procedures
• For successful construction of a RPD, the dentist must
provide lab personnel with the following:
▫ Written work authorization
▫ Surveyed diagnostic cast with designing
▫ Articulated Master cast
Written work
Authorization
Tripoding the Master Cast
Heights of Contour
• Heights of contour for the teeth & soft tissue marked on
the master cast
Design Transfer
Blockout
• Wax is placed in the undesirable undercuts on master cast
• Blockout Wax placed parallel to path of placement
▫ Placed apical to the height of contour
▫ Not applied in areas where intimate metal contact is
desired
▫ Contoured after placement
Relief
• Addition of wax intended to make the framework stand
away from the master cast
▫ Retentive latticework must be raised above the
edentulous area
▫ 1mm space
▫ One thickness of baseplate wax
▫ Relief for small or inoperable tori
Duplication
Duplication
Cast Duplication
• Purposes:
▫ To preserve original
▫ Fitting framework without danger of fracture or abrading
the surface of Master cast
▫ For processing temporary prosthesis
▫ Allow formation of an investment cast for framework
fabrication
• Materials:
▫ Reversible Hydrocolloids
▫ Duplicating Silicons
Refractory Cast
• Foundation for waxing & casting procedures
• Low-heat investments
▫ Gypsum bonded
▫ For Type IV Gold alloys
• High-heat investments
▫ Phosphate bonded
▫ For Chrome-Cobalt alloys
Design Transfer
• Design is carefully transferred from the master cast to the
refractory cast
Waxing the Framework
Preformed plastic patterns are available in many shapes & sizes
Waxing the Framework
Waxing the Framework
Spruing the Framework
The Sprue
The sprue
• The sprue channel is the
opening leading from the
crucible to the cavity in
which the framework is to
be cast.
• Sprues have the purpose of
leading the molten metal
from the crucible into the
mold cavity.
The sprue
• Sprues should be:
▫ Large enough to accommodate
the entering stream
▫ lead into the mold cavity as
directly as possible
▫ should leave the crucible from a
common point and be attached
to the wax pattern at its bulkier
sections.
• The sprues provide a reservoir of molten metal from which the
casting may draw during solidification, thus preventing
porosity caused by shrinkage.
Investing the refractory cast
Investing the sprued pattern
Burnout
• Burnout or wax elimination
▫ Drives off moisture in the mold
▫ Vaporizes & eliminates the wax pattern leaving a cavity
in the mold
▫ Expands the mold to compensate for contraction of
the metal on cooling
• Burnout furnaces
▫ Gas or electric
Diagrammatic Representation of a
Dental Casting Mold
A – Crucible former
B – Sprue
C – Cavity formed by wax
pattern after burnout
D – Investment
E – Liner
F – Casting ring
G – 6 mm
Casting
• Molten metal is forcefully injected into the mold cavity
• Melting the metal
▫ Gas-oxygen blowtorch
▫ Electric muffle surrounding the metal
▫ Induction method
• Injecting the metal into the mold cavity
▫ Centrifugal fore
▫ Air pressure force
Casting Recovery
Tapping with mallet
Airborne particle abrasion
Finishing & Polishing
Finishing & Polishing
• Electropolishing
▫ A bath of 85% Orthophosphoric acic, heated to 49º-60ºC
▫ Anode attached to the cast
▫ Cast immersed in the solution
▫ For 6 min
Framework ready for Trial
Metal Framework Trial