Fabrication of Hollow Maxillary Complete Denture Using Silicon Putty and Double Flask Technique

This article describes the fabrication of a hollow maxillary complete denture using silicone putty and a double flask technique. A successful complete denture directly depends on retention, stability and support accompanied by good aesthetics. However, in case of atrophic edentulous ridges the challenge lies in the fact that there is a significantly lesser denture bearing area that can lead to a number of problems. The most important of these is an increased interarch space resulting from excessive resorption of upper or lower arch. This can lead to a resulting heavy complete denture that further deteriorates the bone condition due to excessive and continuous load, accelerating bone resorption. Moreover, there is no effective support to deal with any kind of harmful lateral forces and this can lead to dislodgment of the denture. The operator’s efficiency lies in applying the basic principles of fabricating a denture and innovating various steps to counter critical situations. Various methods such as asbestos, silicone putty, modelling clay, thermocol, salt, wax have been used for creating a hollow space inside the denture. Out of the various methods that have been used for fabrication of a hollow space inside a complete denture, silicone putty method is one of the more convenient and accurate method for achieving the objective, thereby rendering a lighter prosthesis. A hollow maxillary denture is highly advantageous as it reduces the weight of acrylic resin, thereby preserving the residual alveolar ridge. It also helps in stability of the denture by indirectly reducing the lateral forces.