Differing Expansion Contributions of Three Investment Materials Used for Casting Titanium

Purpose: This laboratory study aimed at investigating the effect of setting expansion (SE), which could enlarge a wax pattern by concurrent exothermic reaction. Materials and Methods: Two phosphate-bonded investment materials (Rematitan Plus, T-invest C & B) and alumina-magnesia-based investment material (Titavest CB) were subjected to setting temperature and SE measurements (n = 10). Full-crown wax patterns were prepared from metal dies having the same design. Crown castings (n= 6) were made using a one-chamber high-pressure casting machine. Commercially pure titanium ingot (Japanese Industrial Standard Class II) was used for each casting. Dimensional accuracy of the cast crowns was expressed by marginal discrepancy for a pair of wax pattern and casting prepared from the same die. All results were then subjected to regression analysis. Results: Rematitan Plus gave the highest setting temperature (about 70 degrees C) and the highest SE (1.16 +/- 0.01%) almost concurrently. The result was that Rematitan Plus produced oversized crowns from the lowest thermal expansion (TE) value (0.53 +/- 0.05%) reducing the linear correlation to 0.80 (p < 0.05). No significant linear relationship was found between SE of investment material and crown-casting accuracy. Conclusions: The almost concurrent occurrence of high SE and high setting temperature generation in Rematitan Plus enlarged the wax pattern and effectively supplemented its low TE to produce oversized crowns. Despite this adverse effect, the correlation between TE and crown accuracy was still high. It is generally expected that the TE values given by manufacturers predict crown accuracy, when uniform TE, small SE, and minimum heat generation during setting are assured.