Whats the difference between dental alginate and prosthetic-grade alginate?
A. Dental alginate is designed to take a relatively small impression in a persons mouth within the confines of a fairly stiff container (the dental tray). Being in the mouth, the alginate should be fairly thick so it won’t run down the patient’s throat and gag them. It also needs to set pretty quickly because there will less time for the patient to gag. Being in the tray means that the alginate doesn’t need to be that strong when set because it won’t be subjected to great stress. Also, the inside of the mouth can usually tolerate cold water temperatures for a couple of minutes so warm water temperature isn’t necessary.
