Did you know that agar is used to make dental molds?

Although agar is a material that has become familiar to the general public through cooking, it has other very interesting applications. For example, for a long time now it has been used in odontology to obtain partial or total dental imprints. With these molds of the patient's mouth, models of the teeth are made for study or for the manufacture of dental prostheses.  

Agar is a truly hydrophilic material; therefore, teeth do not have to be dried before it is placed in the mouth. The process is carried out through three immersions at different agar temperatures. The first at 100 °C to liquefy the agar, the second to lower the temperature of the material for intra-oral use (usually set at 43-46 °C) which is the one that enables the teeth to be modeled and the third, which is for storage and is set at 63-66 °C.  

Unlike alginates, molds made with agar do not require the addition of chemicals for their production and form an imprint of a much more precise quality. The model of the patient's teeth is used to make high-precision ceramic compounds. Ceramic-based restorations are the basis for the current model of fixed prosthesis in odontology, as they are more aesthetic and biocompatible.