The Posterior Palatal Seal:

Its Rationale And

Importance: An Overview
Shelly Goyal et al.,
European Journal of Prosthodontics | May-Aug 2014 | Vol 2 | Issue 2
 CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Definitions
 Anatomical considerations of PPS
 Rationale & Importance of PPS
 Functions of PPS
 Parameters of PPS
 Methods of recording PPS
 Trouble shooting in PPS and Clinical implications
 Conclusion
 References
 INTRODUCTION
 Patients expectations are considered as main factor in designing
of prosthesis for giving a successful treatment.
 They usually approach us with common complaints of poor
masticating ability, difficulty in speech, esthetics and so on.
 They expect a good prosthesis which is well retained in mouth for
a long duration and work efficiently during stomatognathic
function.
 A well fitting and retentive complete denture requires a well
fitting surface, a peripheral border compatible with the muscles
and tissues which make up the muccobuccal and muccolabial
spaces so that a peripheral seal is created by the soft tissue
drapping over them.
 This is mainly obtained by labial, buccal and posterior palatal
seal.
 AIM

 This paper will review the rationale and importance of

posterior palatal seal, anatomical reference landmarks,
functions, various techniques used in establishing and
reproducing posterior palatal seal and discusses the
problems associated with recording posterior palatal
seal.
 Definitions

 Posterior palatal seal area is the soft tissue area at or beyond the
junction of the hard and soft palates on which pressure, with in
physiological limits, can be applied by a denture to aid in
retention.(GPT 8).
Anatomic Considerations

Posterior palatal
seal

Pterygomaxillary
Postpalatal seal
seal
 Rationale And Importance Of Posterior
Palatal Seal
 Often it is possible to obtain acceptable stability and retention by a perfectly
adapted denture base through the forces of adhesion, cohesion, and interfacial
surface tension.
 This border seal is made possible by developing the proper width and the
extension of the denture borders, so that they fill the spaces and make a seal
against the cheeks.
 Posterior palatal seal will create a partial vacuum that will not operate
continuously, but one that will come into play only when horizontal or tipping
thrusts tend to dislodge the denture and then only long enough to overcome the
emergency.
 This partial vacuum is unlikely to operate long enough to do any damage to the
supporting or border tissues.
 The retention of complete denture may be accomplished more accurately and
safely with a good appraisal of the biological factors.
 Functions Of Posterior Palatal Seal
1. To provide retention.
2. Prevents ingress of fluid, air and food between denture and
tissue
3. Diminishes gagging reflex
4. Provides embedded sunken distal border which is less
conspicuous to tongue
5. Supplies a thick border to counteract denture warpage due to
dimensional changes during the polymerization shrinkage of
methyl methacrylate resin.

Ettinger, R. L., & Scandrett, F. R. (1980). The posterior palatal seal. A review.Australian dental journal, 25(4), 197-200.
 Weintraub added functions of posterior palatal seal.
6. Adds confidence and comfort to the patient by enhancing
retention.
7. Establishes a positive contact posteriorly and therefore
prevents the final impression material from sliding down into
the pharynx.

Weintraub, G. S. (1977). Establishing the posterior palatal seal during the final impression procedure: a functional
approach. The Journal of the American Dental Association, 94(3), 505-510.
Parameters Of Posterior
Palatal Seal
 Size
 It was claimed that on an average the dimension of posterior
palatal seal was 2 mm at the midpalatal region and hamular notch
and 4 mm at the greatest curvature region of posterior palatal seal.
 Variation was also found.
 Silvermann performed a study evaluating the posterior palatal
seal clinically, radiographically and histologically and he found
that the greatest mean anteroposterior width of posterior palatal
seal is 8.0mm.

Silverman, S. I. (1971). Dimensions and displacement patterns of the posterior palatal seal. The Journal of prosthetic
dentistry, 25(5), 470-488.
 Shape
 Five different forms of posterior palatal seal were commonly used:
1) Single bead scribed on the posterior vibrating
2) Double line scribed in the anterior and posterior vibrating line
3) Butterfly shaped posterior palatal seal
4) Butterfly shaped posterior palatal seal with notching of posterior vibrating line
5) Butterfly shaped posterior palatal seal with notching of hamular notch.

 Variations used with different shaped soft palate based on the classification
Class 1: A butterfly shaped posterior palatal seal with 3-4 mm wide
Class 2: Posterior palatal seal is narrow with 2-3 mm of width
Class 3: A single beading made on the posterior vibrating line.

Winland, R. D., & Young, J. M. (1973). Maxillary complete denture posterior palatal seal: Variations in size, shape, and
location. The Journal of prosthetic dentistry, 29(3), 256-261.
 Location
 Acc to Lye., location of posterior palatal seal is not consistent and
shows a lot of variation, but on an average anterior vibrating line
is 1.31mm distal to fovea palatini, but the posterior limit of
denture can be extended an additional of 2mm before the soft
tissue movement is sufficient to break the seal.

Silverman SI. Dimensions and displacement patterns of the posterior palatal seal.
J Prosthet Dent 1971;25:470-88.
 Displacement
 Lot of variation has been found within the posterior palatal seal
area.
 But low compressibility has been observed in midpalatal raphe
and hamular notch region.
 High compressibility has been in the lateral part of cupids bow.
 Its variation depends on the form of palatal vault like in class I
palate posterior palatal seal area remains shallow, while it is deep
in class III palate.
 Classification of soft palate
 Before recording the posterior palatal seal, it is very important to
classify the type of soft palate the patient has.
 Palatal throat form as given by House:
a) Class 1: Large and normal in form, with a relatively immovable
band of resilient tissue 5-12 mm distal to a line drawn across distal
edge of the tuberosities.
b) Class 2: Medium size and normal in form, with relatively
immovable resilient band of tissue 3-5 mm distal to a line drawn
across the distal edge of the tuberosities.
c) Class 3: Usually accompanies a small maxilla. The curtain of soft
tissues turns down abruptly 3-5 mm anterior to a line drawn across
the palate at the distal edge of the tuberosities.

House MM. The relationship of oral examination to dental diagnosis. J Prosthet Dent 1958;8:208-19
Locating Posterior palatal seal region
 As tissues of this area are displaceable, the seal can be identified when
the movable tissues are functioning. Methods that can be employed are
as follows:
1. Palpation method using a T burnisher.
2. Nose blow method or valsalva maneuver ; closing both nostrils of the
patient and asking him to blow gently through the nose.
3. Phonation method ; visualizing the vibrating lines as the patient says
‘ah’.
4. Anatomical landmark ; using fovea palatinae to identify vibrating area.
Clinically different methods may result in different locations of the
vibrating line.
 Chen in his study on the reliability of methods to locate PPS reported that
the vibrating line in the same individual observed by the nose blowing
method is located slightly anteriorly than the vibrating line observed by the
phonation method.
But, the difference in the mean value between the lines identified was
clinically insignificant.

 Vernie et al studied a small study sample and found that the anterior
vibrating line established by nose blowing method. They explained this by
stating that the palaptory method locates the junction of hard and soft palate
and nose blowing method distinguishes the movable and immovable portion
of soft palate.
 Methods of recording posterior palatal seal

 Different methods can be used for recording posterior palatal seal

and at different stages of complete denture construction.
 Hardy and Kapoor classified them in to functional, semi
functional and empirical technique.

Conventional Fluid wax

approach(Winklers technique(Functional or
technique) physiological technique)

Arbitrary
Scrapping

Extended palatal Ultrasonic Technique of

technique(Silverman) recording PPS

Hardy IR, Kapoor KK. Posterior border seal-its rationale and importance. J Prosthet Dent 1958;8:386-97
 1.Conventional technique

 Known as Winkler technique.

 Advantage:
1. Highly retentive trial bases give good jaw relation.
2. Gives psychological confidence to patient that retention will
not be a problem in final denture.
3. Dentist is able to determine the retention of final denture.
4. Patient will be able to realize the posterior extent of denture,
which may ease the adjustment period.
 Disadvantage:

1. Not an physiological technique.

2. Overcompression.
 2. Fluid Wax Technique
 Also known as functional technique or physiological technique.

Locate and transfer of anterior

and posterior vibrating line.

Final impression is made using

ZOE/impression plaster

The melted wax is painted into

the impression surface.

Impression is made.
Four types of waxes are used
 Iowa wax (white) : Dr. Earl S. Smith
 Korecta wax No. 4 (orange) : Dr. O.C. Applegate
 H-L physiologic paste (yellow white) : C.S. Harkins
 Adaptol (green) : Nathan G. Kaye
 Advantage
1. Physiologic technique
2. No compression
3. No mechanical scrapping of cast
 Disadvantage
1. Time consuming
2. Cumbersome
3. Difficulty in handling material
4. Care should be taken during boxing procedure
3. Extended palatal technique(Silverman)

Maxillary posterior denture border

was extended to an average of
8.2mm distal to anterior vibrating
line.

Compound is added 8-
12mm distal to the anterior
vibrating line

The convexities that form the distal

outline of the seal areas are formed by
the depression between the tensor veli
palatini and palatoglossus muscle.
 Advantage
1. More effective in class 1 soft palate, small, mobile and
displaceable residual ridge, with narrow and high vaulted
maxillary arches.
2. Maximum tissue coverage with minimum tongue irritation.
 Disadvantage
1. Patient may not tolerate extended trays and produce gag
reflex and pain.
2. It is difficult to execute in various palatal forms.
 4. Arbitrary scrapping
 According to Winkler, arbitrarily mark the anterior and posterior
vibrating line and scrape about 1-1.5 mm.
 It is the least accurate methods used to mark the posterior palatal
seal.
 Its high potential for over postdamming is due to its nature of
unphysiologic technique of recording.
 5. Ultrasonic Technique Of Recording
Posterior Palatal Seal
 It was proposed by Rajeev M Narvekar and Mark B
Appelbaum.
 Ultrasound refers to sound with frequencies higher than
audible range (20 – 20,000HZ).
 Indicated in class I & II types of palates.
 Basic elements of ultra sound scanning includes:
1. Transducer
2. Couplant

Rajeev MN, Applelboum BM. An investigation of the anatomic position of the posterior seal by ultrasound.
J Prosthet Dent 1989;61:331-6.
 Mark posterior palatal seal using conventional method. Place a
thin rubber band on anterior 1/3rd of transducer, which serves as
an index that would appear in monitor.
 Toothpaste is used as a line couplant.
 The transducer is taken intro oral cavity and initially moved
posteriorly to the left of midline to locate hard and soft palates
junction.
 Once the rubber band is visualized on post vibrating line, there
was no display and a Polaroid picture was made.
 Then it was moved to right side of palate.
 The average distance of posterior vibrating from junction of hard
and soft palate is 2-9 mm with 4-6 mm wide posterior palatal seal
Recording PPS in Secondary impression
appointment stage:
 In a functional technique, the final impression is border molded in the
PPS area with soft stick compound or impression wax by making the
patient perform sucking and bubbling movements and , in
semifunctional technique, border molding is done by the dentist.
 Studies measuring the efficacy of impression material in recording PPS
indicate that best seal can be achieved by using green modelling
compound or korecta wax no 4, and tissue displacement caused by zinc
oxide and eugenol paste was less than that of other materials.
 Determining PPS on Master cast:
 The second commonly reported technique is locating and transferring the PPS
area on the master cast followed by subsequent scrappy.
 The scrapping of the PPS on the cast allows the seal area to have a convex
surface on the denture than slightly displaces the soft palate thereby achieving
peripheral seal.
 Some of the techniques of scrapping and designs of PPs are explained here.
All of these scoring techniques are done after correctly transferring the PPS
area on the master cast.
1. Single bead (Boucher’s technique) and 2. Double bead (Bernard Levin's class III technique)

Bernard Levin
PPS designs for
class I&II soft
palates
3. Butterfly (Swenson’s technique) and 4. Butterfly with bead (Calomeni technique)

5. pound’s technique and 6. Winkler’s technique

 7. Silverman’s technique and 8. Hardy & kapur’s technique

When it comes to scraping patterns, no one type of design is found to be superior to the other.
Posterior palatal seal enhances retention irrespective of the design.
Literature reveals butterfly pattern is the most common design advocated.

Behnoush rashedi,Petropoulus vickic. Current concepts for determining the postpalatal seal in complete
dentures. J Prosthodont 2003; 12:265-70
Troubleshooting In Posterior Palatal Seal And
Clinical Implication
 The most common problem associated with lack of retention of
the maxillary complete denture is a faulty posterior palatal seal.
 Some of the complications are:
a) Under extension
b) Over extention
c) Under postdamming
d) Over postdamming
Under extension:
 Most common cause for failure of the seal in posterior palatal seal area.
Causes:
 Practitioner’s use of the fovea palatina as the landmark for terminating
the denture base. By doing so, he may be depriving the patient of 4 –
12mm of tissue coverage.
 Failure of the dentist to carefully examine hard and soft palates,
making note of palatal configuration.
 Over trimming of posterior border by laboratory technician.
 Due to fear of gagging.
Under postdamming:
 May be the result of recording the tissue when the mouth was wide open during final
impression during which the pterygomandibular fold becomes taut.
 When the patient assumes any position other than wide open position, a space will be
present between the denture base and tissue since the fold is no longer activated.
Diagnosis:
 Place the wet denture base into the mouth and slowly press in the midpalatal region
until it is firmly seated while observing the distal denture border.
 If air bubbles are seen escaping from beneath the distal border, then at that point denture
base is under postdammed.
Correction:
 Further scrape the cast and readapting the trial denture base if conventional approach is
used.
 Add more wax and remind the patient to refrain from opening the mouth so wide if the
fluid wax technique employed.
Over postdamming:
 Commonly occur due to aggressive scraping of cast. If it occurs in
pterygomaxillary seal, the denture is displaced downward.
 If moderate over postdamming is present, then mild irritation is found. It can be
overcome by selectively relieving denture border with a carbide bur, followed
by light pumicing.
 Development of mucous retention cyst has been described by Ellis occurred due
to over extended denture border.
 Gagging is commonly encountered and should be managed carefully before
altering any prosthesis.

Ellis RW. Mucus retention cyst: A case report. Dental Update 1995;22:421-2.
Over extension:
 It mainly occurs due to overzealous extension of denture base for
increased retention by dentist cause physiological violation of soft
palate musculature.
 It mainly shows with symptoms of mucosal ulcerations, painful
swallowing, physiological violation of soft palate muscle, sharp pain if
pterygoid hamulus is covered.
 It can be managed by selectively relieving the pressure areas and
decrease the distal length.
 Addition Of Posterior Palatal Seal To
Existing Denture
 Existing denture may have poor length and depth of posterior palatal
seal.
 If there are other problems in denture then new denture is to be made.
 If only posterior palatal seal is short, then correction should be
undertaken.
 Frank and Salvatore have described the technique of correction of
short posterior extension with poor retention and improper depth of
posterior palatal seal with heat-cured acrylic resin.
 This technique involves performing border molding in posterior palatal
seal area using existing denture and modify area with fluid wax
technique, which is processed in heat-cure acrylic resin.
 Ansari described a method of recording posterior palatal seal on
existing denture using modeling compound and prepare a cast
using putty material and replacing modeling compound with
autopolymerizing resin.

Ansari, I. H. (1997). Establishing the posterior palatal seal during the final impression stage. The Journal of prosthetic dentistry, 78(3), 324-
326.
 Wonsuk describes a simple method of fabricating a stable and retentive
record base to ensure an accurate registration of the maxillomandibular
relationship.
 A postpalatal seal is established along the posterior end of the record base
on the definitive cast using a silicone bite registration material to create a
border seal along with the lip/cheek draping actions and to evaluate
adequacy of the post dam.

Wonsuk et al., Modified Record Base Featuring Postpalatal Seal Using

Silicone Bite Registration Material. Journal of Prosthodontics 20 (2011) 491–493 c 2011 by The American College
of Prosthodontists
  Sato described a technique of adding posterior palatal seal
immediately to existing denture by use of cross-linked reline
resin, light polymerized reline resins, or dual polymerized reline
resins with fabrication of silicone putty core intraorally.

Sato, Y., Hosokawa, R., Tsuga, K., & Yoshida, M. (2000). Immediate maxillary denture base extension for posterior palatal seal. The Journal
of prosthetic dentistry, 83(3), 371-373.
 Addition Of Posterior Palatal Seal To Metal
Denture Base Complete Denture
 Lyan described method of adding posterior palatal seal to metal denture base
by micromechanical bond produced by etching of metal.

After marking Then, etch the Etching can be done using

spot chemical etching, with Then mix self-
anterior and Then check for area of metal acid gel for 10-20 min, for
base metal alloy or chemical cure acrylic and
posterior posterior palatal base to which immersion etching apply in layers
vibrating line in seal using acrylic resin is to technique/electrochemical
etching technique (10% using brush and
patient’s mouth, modeling be attached for H2S04-300 mA, for 3 min
seat in oral cavity
transfer into compound. posterior palatal followed by cleaning in 18%
HCL in ultrasonic vibrating till it sets.
metal base. seal. chamber).

 It is also found that the micromechanical bond strength was above 16.70 MPa
and 3.5 times greater than retention using beads.
 CONCLUSION
 The placement of the correct posterior palatal seal area is not a difficult
procedure once the anatomy and the physiology of the area are
understood.
 Careful examination during the diagnostic phase of the treatment can
alleviate many potential problems.
 Following established techniques for the placement of the border seal
will ensure a more retentive prosthesis for the patient , whose
satisfaction is the practioner’s main concern.
References
 1. Hardy IR, Kapoor KK. Improved adhesion of denture acrylic resin to base metal
alloys. J Prosthet Dent 1987;57:520-4.
 2. Ettinger RL, Scandrett FR. The posterior palatal seal. A review. Aust Dent J
1980;25:197-200.
 3. Schwarz WD. The post dam. Dental Update 1991;18:26-30.
 4. The Glossary of Prosthodontic Terms 8th ed. J Prosthet Dent 2005;95:10-81.
 5. Hardy IR, Kapoor KK. Posterior border seal-its rationale and importance. J
Prosthet Dent 1958;8:386-97.
 6. Boucher CO, Hickey JC, Zarb GA. Prosthodontic treatment for edentulous
patients. 7th ed. St. Louis: The CV Mosby Company; 1975. p. 118-20.
 7. Winkler S. Essentials of complete denture prosthodontics. Philadelphia, London,
Toronto: WB Saunders; 1979. p. 171-92.
 8. YA Bindhoo et al.,Posterior palatal seal: A literature review. International journal
of prosthodontics and restorative dentistry.