Impression Making Process
What is the step-by-step impression making procedure?
TAKING YOUR IMPRESSIONS:
- Wash and dry hands and stand in front of a mirror.
- Enclosed in your whitening system are 2 plastic impression trays and 6 impression material cups (3 with blue putty and 3 with white putty). Beginning with 1 clear tray, remove the blue putty from 1 cup and the white putty from 1 cup (photo 1). Quickly knead the two together (photo 2) until they are well blended into 1 color. This should take no longer than 40 seconds.
- Quickly form the putty into a round, narrow finger shaped roll (photo 3) and place it in the plastic impression tray (photo 4).
- Push the filled tray over the upper teeth *do not bite down* (photo 5), making sure that the teeth are centered along the middle of the impression material. Using your fingers, press the tray firmly and evenly until the putty completely covers your teeth and part of your gums. The putty will extrude through the holes, this is normal and necessary to hold the impression in place. Hold the tray very still for 4 to 5 minutes. The putty will feel firm to the touch when it has set up.
- Remove the impression and rinse with cold water.
- Inspect the impression. Make sure that the front 8 teeth as well as the gums above the teeth are visible in your impression (photo 6). Do not remove the impression from the plastic tray.
- Repeat steps 2-6 for the lower teeth. In case of error, or if you cannot see all 8 of the front teeth and the gums above the teeth, another impression will be needed. An extra set of putty has been provided in the impression kit.
How do I mail my impressions to the dental lab?
MAIL YOUR IMPRESSIONS:
- Complete the Customer Information Card that is provided.
- Place the completed Customer Information Card, along with the impressions, into the client-to-lab shipping envelope provided. **Note: This client-to-lab shipping envelope is prepaid and preaddressed to the appropriate dental lab in your region. You may notice an additional prepaid, preaddressed lab-to-client envelope within this envelope, please do not remove it as this is how the lab will return your custom trays to you.
- Once the lab receives your impression, your custom trays (photo 7) will be fabricated with 3-5 business day and then returned. Remember to allow time for shipping. You may track the status of your trays throughout the entire process by logging into the client area of our website (www.NovaWhite.com) and viewing your profile.
How do I use the temporary thermoform trays?
For your convenience, we have provided 3 thermoform (boil-n-bite) trays for immediate use. It is important to understand that these THERMOFORM TRAYS ARE NOT AN EFFECTIVE SUBSTITUTE FOR CUSTOM WHITENING TRAYS. However, they can be a convenient, temporary alternative for those clients wishing to begin the whitening process immediately. You should expect to use more gel and results can be inconsistent. To form these temporary trays to your teeth follow the steps below:
- Lower 1 tray into warm NOT BOILING water until the material is soft. This should take no longer than 5 seconds.
- Carefully remove the softened tray from the water, place over upper teeth, and create suction pressure in your mouth. This suction will roughly mold the thermoform trays to your teeth. **Be careful not to burn your mouth by allowing the water to get too hot.
- You may now use these temporary thermoform trays to begin whitening your teeth until you receive your custom whitening trays back from the lab.
