marine drugs Review Alginate Materials and Dental Impression Technique: A Current State of the Art and Application to Dental Practice Gabriele Cervino 1 , Luca Fiorillo 1 , Alan Scott Herford 2, Luigi Laino 3, Giuseppe Troiano 4 , Giulia Amoroso 1, Salvatore Crimi 5, Marco Matarese 1, Cesare D’Amico 1, Enrico Nastro Siniscalchi 1 and Marco Cicciù 1,* 1 Department of Biomedical and Dental Sciences and Morphological and Functional Imaging, Messina University, 98100 ME Messina, Italy;
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[email protected]; Tel.: +39-0902216920; Fax: +39-0902216921 Received: 25 November 2018; Accepted: 24 December 2018; Published: 29 December 2018 Abstract: Hydrocolloids were the first elastic materials to be used in the dental field. Elastic impression materials include reversible (agar-agar), irreversible (alginate) hydrocolloids and synthetic elastomers (polysulfides, polyethers, silicones). They reproduce an imprint faithfully, providing details of a high definition despite the presence of undercuts. With the removal of the impression, being particularly rich in water, the imprints can deform but later adapt to the original shape due to the elastic properties they possess.