Dann Schwartz is vice president and general manager of Raintree Essix Inc, Metairie, La.

OP: What new product or products are you featuring at the AAO Meeting?

Schwartz: We will be demonstrating our new color-change alginate, ImprEssix Color Change, with 5-day stability and the ability to pour the impression twice without distortion. It is highly elastic with high tear strength, resulting in great impressions without tearing when a patient has brackets.

We have a new aligner pontic wax in tooth color. This is great when you have aligners and patients with extraction spaces or congenitally missing laterals.

We are also featuring The TurboMax Alginate auto mixer. This eliminates hand-mixing and reduces the amount of air bubbles, resulting in a more accurate impression.

Another new innovation is the ThermoAire system by Keith Hilliard, DMD. It is used for heating the surface of any thermoplastic aligner for modifications for minor tooth movement.

Our leading Essix ACE plastic will be featured in 0.035-inch thickness, which is ideal for tooth-movement aligners. It is also offered in 0.030-inch and 0.040-inch thicknesses.

OP: Has the fact that 3D computer modeling is now an option changed your approach to making and selling impression materials?

Schwartz: This is a fast and growing market. As such, we feel our new ImprEssix Color Change will be the next-generation alginate!