Characterization

CHARACTERIZATION
Contents
• Introduction
• What is characterization ?
• Why is characterization required ?
• How to characterize dentures
• Characterization of teeth
• Characterization of denture base
• Techniques and options for characterization
• Conclusion
INTRODUCTION
• The appearance of the entire lower half of the face depend upon the
dentures.
Swenson GM. Complete dentures. 2nd ed. St. L C.V. Mosby Co; 1947.
p. 16.
WHAT IS CHARACTERIZATION ?
Characterization :
• the application of unique markings, indentations, coloration, and similar
custom means of delineation on a tooth or dental prosthesis, thus enhancing
natural appearance.
GPT – 9
WHY IS CHARACTERIZATION
REQUIRED ?
Hardy stated that, “To meet the esthetic needs of the denture patient, we should make
the (denture) teeth look like (the patient’s) natural teeth.”
The loss of oral structures primarily affects the appearance of the lower part of the face,
but the restoration must be in esthetic accord with the upper part of the face if the
harmony of the entire face has to be achieved.
Martone AL. Effects of complete dentures on facial Esthetics. J Prosthet

Dent 1964;14:231-55.
HOW TO CHARACTERIZE DENTURES
CHARACTERIZATION OF ARTIFICIAL
TEETH
• Modifications in teeth arrangement
• Modifications in shape of the tooth
• Modifications in specific tooth

• Internal/ external characteristics
• Shade modification
MODIFICATIONS IN TEETH
ARRANGEMENT
Varying the direction of the long axis of teeth.
Place the teeth so that the tips of the maxillary

lateral incisors show when the patient speaks
seriously -
depending on the age and sex, less for old than for
young people and more for women than for men.
Create asymmetry in the divergences of the

proximal surfaces of the teeth from the contact
points.
Use an eccentric midline.

Place one maxillary central and lateral incisor parallel to the midline and rotate
the other central and lateral incisors slightly in a posterior direction.
Place one maxillary central incisor slightly in an anterior direction to the other
central incisor.
Place the neck of one maxillary central incisor in a posterior direction and the
neck of other central incisor in an anterior direction.
Create asymmetry for the maxillary right and left
cuspids. Rotate one in a posterior direction than the
other.
Overlapping, tilting, rotation and incisal variations.
Slight diastema can be created between the lateral

incisor and the cuspid on one side. Diastema limiting
structures of maxilla and prosthetic management
given should exceed 2-3mm and should be wider
MODIFICATIONS IN SHAPE OF THE
TOOTH
Teeth abrade with age, so reshaping the incisal

edges and mesio-distal diameter give a natural
appearance.
Peg lateral can be given to patients who had them

Peg lateral incorporated into the denture
MODIFICATIONS IN SPECIFIC
TOOTH
A hair line crack can be given in the teeth.
Gold or alloy restorations can be placed
Silver filling can be given on posterior teeth.
Cast crown can be given on posterior teeth.
A discolored tooth (as R.C.T treated) can be

shown by selecting one or two teeth of darker
shade.
Dental jewelry can be given on lateral incisors or
canines.
Gingival tissues recede with age. Selecting a long tooth, contouring the wax
to show gingival recession and then staining it a bit, can reproduce this
recession.
Tobacco staining on tooth

CHARACTERISATION OF DENTURE
BASE
Pound in 1951 incorporated the racial and individual colour peculiarities, of
the gingiva in artificial denture. He was the first to suggest a method of tinting
acrylic denture bases to simulate the gingival colour.
Kemnitzer used a combination of blue and brown stain to reproduce the

melanotic pigmentation of the gingiva.
Indications for characterization of denture
base
1. Patients with an active upper lip.
2. Patients with a prominent pre-

maxillary process.
3. Actors, singers and others who may

expose gum tissues areas during their
performances.
4. The psychological acceptance of the

dentures by the patient.
The smooth, pink, polished surface of an average acrylic denture quickly reveals
it’s false. Therefore, the surface of the denture base can be modified by –
• Stippling
• Alveolar eminence
• Inflamed or bulbous gingiva
• Use of tints in the denture bases
• Simulating melanin pigmentation
Copying gingival texture and contours contributes to the natural appearance of
labial flanges in complete dentures by causing uneven reflection of light.
This, in turn, reduces the shine and reflection typically seen in highly polished denture
flanges and provides a more natural appearance.
Fibres can be added to the denture base to

simulate blood vessels in the gingiva
STIPPLING
The area of the attached gingiva can be stippled at the try in stage.
The various popular methods used are -
1. Toothbrush technique- by pressing the bristles of toothbrush against the surface

of wax denture pattern
2. Offset bur technique- by using a round bur (no’s 4 and 8) in circular motion over
the denture while the handpiece is running.
3. Blow wax technique- done by blowing the molten wax on a heated wax
spatula, 6 to 8 inches away from the wax of the denture base with your mouth.
4. With the help of a sponge- by dabbing the sponge on the softened wax of the
trial denture base.
• Lynn C. Dirksen used stippled plastic contour veneer which was applied to
the wax-up for 5 minutes.
• It practically eliminated carving and polishing of the cured denture.
ALVEOLAR EMINENCE
• To further enhance the natural effect, it is

necessary to imitate the anatomy the
gingivae and alveolus.
• The labial flange of a complete denture

should not be a smooth curved sheet of
acrylic, but instead should show a series
of swellings corresponding to the alveolar
eminencies over the roots of the teeth
Festooned denture base
• These are most marked anteriorly and become progressively less marked in
the pre-molar and molar region.
• In the upper anterior region, the canine eminence is most marked.
The lateral incisor eminence is small.
• In the lower jaw, again the canine eminence is most marked and a series of
smaller ridges mark the presence of the incisor roots
INFLAMED OR BULBOUS GINGIVA
• The reflection of inflamed or bulbous gingiva can also be reproduced by

leaving more interdental wax.
USE OF TINTS IN THE DENTURE BASES
• Several methods have been used to tint denture, base resins to achieve a
more natural appearance.
• Usually heat curing or auto-polymerizing resins of various shades or colors are
painted on the denture base or are shifted on to the mold during denture
construction to obtain a tinted denture.
TECHNIQUES FOR CHARACTERISATION
USING TINTS
Techniques for using tints are
• Technique 1:
• This technique suggests initially trial packing the denture with a sheet of
rubber dam between the teeth and the resin.
• After the trial closure, the flask is opened.
• The tints are applied with a small camel's hairbrush wetted with monomer or
by dusting and wetting with dropper on the external contours of the denture
base and the imprints of the ridge-lap portions of the teeth.
• With either approach only small amount of the tinted resins are added which
will not cause overfilling of the mold.
Advantage:
• This technique allows you to preview your efforts to some degree.
Disadvantages
• The teeth are in other half of the flask, so the complementary effect of their
shade cannot be appreciated.
• Possibility of scuffing the colour veneer, when it is returned to the flask.
• Pigments are only on the surface, so subtle shading is more difficult.
• The esthetically critical areas of gingival cuff and papilla are the most
difficult to control.
Technique 2:
• Dusting and wetting.
• This technique has more widespread acceptance, involves applying the tints in
reverse order from outside in, i.e. after dewaxing the different shades of resins are
applied in different areas by dusting and wetting prior to filling the base with the
mold resins.
• Place as minimal an amount of monomer as necessary to barely wet the powder.
• Allow it to stand for about 15sec.before turning the flask.
• The intense colors should be restricted to the deeper veneers.
• Allow the completed veneer to stand for 10-15 minutes before packing the rest of
mold.
Tint sifted around the teeth. Minimal amount of monomer is
The lightest colours are applied used to wet the dusted powder.
first.
SIMULATING MELANIN
PIGMENTATION:
• This method involves the use of brown and purple resins for
those with pigmented oral tissues.
• Brush-on or paint-on technique -John L. Powers suggested
that dusting and wetting technique is all-imaginary in the
absence of the patient and its time consuming.
• Therefore, he developed a technique to apply the tinting
material directly to the finished denture after processing, in
the presence of the patient.
• He said coloring of the denture varies from one patient to
another. So, one cannot use the same color resins for each
patient and the coloring of the denture base can be
modified according the tissue color of each patient.
Custom staining can be done quickly and requires the following armamentarium:
1. Denture tinting chart.
2. Soft tissue shade guide.
3. #6 camel hair brush.
4. Acrylic resin stains or shade modifiers in a variety of colors including red, brown and
black.
5. Dappen dishes
6. Pressure pot or a light curing unit for curing the stains.
• Newer, autopolymerizing and light-cured shade modifiers are cadmium-free and

are preferred
AG = Attached Gingiva Shade Light reddish pink
AM = Alveolar Mucosa Shade Reddish pink
B = Blanched areas over roots Shade Pale pink
F = Frenum Attachments Shade Red stain
P = Papillae Shade Light reddish pink
Denture tissue tinting chart with areas to be tinted and shades selected
Soft tissue shade guide
• The soft tissue shade guide is used to select a denture base material which is
most representative of each patient's tissues.
• This is done at the appointment when the artificial teeth are selected.
• Using this same shade guide, other tissue colors and unusual characteristics,
i.e., blotches of melanin, are also recorded on the denture tinting chart.
ACRYLIC SHADING CHART
A harmonized shade system consisting of seven natural
looking pink shades (characterized with fibres), and three
heavily pigmented ethnic shades.
RECENT ADVANCES
Photocured denture coating
• Previous color characterization techniques rarely recommended surface
staining of finished dentures with autopolymerizing acrylic resin stains
because of the lack of color stability and the lack of abrasion resistance of
these stains.
• However, applying stains to the gingival surfaces in the flask before packing
has a major disadvantage. If any reshaping of these surfaces is required
after processing, the stains are lost in finishing and in polishing.
• In this technique, surface staining of finished dentures is possible because of
clear, light-cured resin coatings.
• The clear coating provides a hard, high gloss which makes the polishing of
dentures unnecessary. The coating seals the surface which promotes the
color stability of the base and the stains
Light cured gum shading
• It consist of micro filled composite resin , can be applied in multilayered
technique and can delivers unlimited possibilities for gingival reproduction
GUM SHADE COLOR CHART FOR

LIGHT CURE GUM SHADING
Designed to produce natural gingival shades, “state-of-the-art” light-
cured composites utilize multiple layering techniques.
CONCLUSION
Characterization of the complete dentures is necessary to give the dentures a

life like appearance, to make it appear more natural.
Every denture should be characterized according to the particular patient,

rather than doing a pearl like arrangement of artificial teeth with a twinkling,
plane sheet of acrylic resin denture base which quickly reveals it to be false.
Our esthetic aim is the production of anatomic characterization present

before the extraction of teeth.

Characterization

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CHARACTERIZATION

Martone AL. Effects of complete dentures on facial Esthetics. J Prosthet

• Modifications in shape of the tooth

• Modifications in specific tooth

Place the teeth so that the tips of the maxillary

Create asymmetry in the divergences of the

Use an eccentric midline.

Overlapping, tilting, rotation and incisal variations.

Slight diastema can be created between the lateral

Teeth abrade with age, so reshaping the incisal

Peg lateral can be given to patients who had them

Gold or alloy restorations can be placed

Silver filling can be given on posterior teeth.

Cast crown can be given on posterior teeth.

A discolored tooth (as R.C.T treated) can be

Tobacco staining on tooth

Kemnitzer used a combination of blue and brown stain to reproduce the

2. Patients with a prominent pre-

3. Actors, singers and others who may

4. The psychological acceptance of the

Fibres can be added to the denture base to

1. Toothbrush technique- by pressing the bristles of toothbrush against the surface

• To further enhance the natural effect, it is

• The labial flange of a complete denture

• The reflection of inflamed or bulbous gingiva can also be reproduced by

• Newer, autopolymerizing and light-cured shade modifiers are cadmium-free and

GUM SHADE COLOR CHART FOR

Characterization of the complete dentures is necessary to give the dentures a

Every denture should be characterized according to the particular patient,

Our esthetic aim is the production of anatomic characterization present

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