Mechanical properties of tissue conditioners. Part II: creep characteristics.

These static creep characteristics indicate that under functional loads Coe-Comfort could behave satisfactorily as a tissue-conditioning material for periods up to 1 week, particularly for the first 24 hours postinsertion. However, the absence of published data on the tissue loads exerted by dentures in their resting state precludes making judgments as to the absolute efficiency of any of these materials as tissue-conditioning agents. When the present results are considered along with those obtained in an earlier study (Part I), the following general conclusions can be made: 1. Coe-Comfort should exhibit the best tissue-conditioning characteristics of the materials tested. 2. F.I.T.T. should perform as the best functional impression material. 3. Lynal is distinctly different from the other two materials in its mechanical properties. Its much greater stiffness coupled with much lower plasticity precludes a prediction of its relative clinical efficacy.