The purpouse of this study was to evaluate hydrophilicity of elastomeric impression materials. The contact angles before and after hardening were measured, using 8 types of hydrophilic impression materials and 8 types of hydrophobic impression materials and the following findings were obtained;
1. The contact angle 2 minutes after start of mixing was similar between hydrophilic and hydrophobic impression materials, and it showed to significantly decrease after 2 minutes (P<0.05).
2. The contact angle of hydrophilic impression materials was smaller than that of hydrophobic materials 10 minutes after start of mixing. The contact angle of all hydrophilic impression materials and 4 types of hydrophobic materials showed to significantly decrease after 10 minutes (P<0.05). However the contact angle of the remaining 4 types of hydrophobic impression materials did not significantly decrease as time went by (P<0.05).