Over the years, many of our patients have inquired about our impression process and what exactly we use for this step. A lot of people have apprehension about this step in the fitting process, however most patients are pleasantly surprised how quick and painless it is.

Our Ocularists start with what is called an impression tray. This is a thin acrylic plastic shell that has many small holes drilled into it to allow for any air that may remain in the socket to escape, and a clear hollow tube attached at the center for the delivery of the impression material. Once the impression tray has been gently inserted into the eye socket, our Ocularists prepare the impression material and load a syringe to deliver it into the tray.

This impression material is composed of derivatives from the cell walls of brown algae. This alginate is both food and skin safe, which makes it a perfect material to be used for this application and also commonly used in the dental industry.

Once delivered into the ocular socket, this fast set material takes roughly 45 seconds to gel, which is great news to some of our past patients that had to wait upwards of 2-3 minutes. Once gelling is complete, our Ocularists gently remove the completed impression tray, that has made an accurate copy of your socket, and place it into a gypsum stone mold so the next step of your custom prosthesis can begin.