Temporary by Name, Exceptional by Nature

Just because a restoration is temporary doesn’t mean it deserves a quick fix or a slap-on-a-bandage approach. Gone are the days when “temporary” meant settling for a less than-perfect fit or an obvious appearance. Today’s temporary restorations can be both functional and esthetically pleasing, and when created with the right material, may have patients completely forget that they’re wearing a provisional restoration at all.

One material that has proven itself as a trustworthy temporary restorative solution is Patterson Dental’s Temporary Crown and Bridge Material. This product allows dentists like Drs. Jeffrey Greene and Varo Boyer to craft exceptional temporary restorations that seamlessly blend with natural teeth, providing both function and esthetic appeal while restoring a patient’s confidence.

A Quick and Easy Solution

A fluorescent, paste-paste system for the fabrication of temporary crowns, bridges, inlays and onlays, the Temporary Crown and Bridge Material is extremely user-friendly with an automatic and accurate 4:1/10:1 mixing and dispensing system. The material is flowable as it’s placed directly into the impression, and then changes consistency from flowable to an elastic phase for easy fabrication. Its intraoral setting time of less than 60 seconds speeds up procedures without sacrificing results.

“The quick initial set was a great feature of the material, and removal from the mouth after 1 minute was an additional benefit,” shared Dr. Jeffrey Greene, a Scottsdale, AZ, dentist in practice for more than 40 years. “The Patterson Temporary Crown and Bridge Material took a great impression of the preparation, giving clear detail to the margins for trimming,” he added. Appreciating the material’s ease of use, he said that “making good fitting, cosmetic temporaries is one less stress during the crown procedure.”

Compared to other temporary materials he has used, Dr. Varo Boyer, who practices in Simi Valley, CA, said the Patterson material “is much stronger and is quicker and safer for me or my dental assistant to make, trim, and deliver the provisional.”

Exceptional Fit and Esthetics

Available in 6 shades—A1, A2, A3, A3.5, B1, and Bleach—the material features excellent shade matching and polishability for exceptional esthetic results. Explaining that “the color match and polish worked very well for an anterior crown on a fussy patient,” Dr. Greene and the patient were both thrilled with the results. “The patient was happy, and the tissue was in excellent condition during crown placement.” When creating provisional restorations, Dr. Greene looks for a material with minimal shrinkage that allows him to get a good fit without needing to use a flowable material to seal the margins. The Patterson temporary material proved to be exactly what he needed to accomplish this goal. “The fit made an excellent and readable margin for trimming that didn’t require additional material to refit,” he said.

Case in Point

In a complex bridge case on teeth Nos. 30-32, Dr. Boyer needed an especially strong temporary material, and he found the Patterson product to be crucial to a successful outcome. The patient had minimal interocclusal space and short teeth and had chosen a monolithic zirconia crown, which has a heavy chamferlike margin, shared Dr. Boyer.

In this case, he said, “Using [another] temporary crown and bridge material would not have been ideal, since many materials break when the occlusal portion is thin or when the axial reduction is not very heavy.” By using the Patterson Temporary Crown and Bridge Material, however, he was able to keep his occlusal and axial reduction conservative yet have a strong provisional that lasted for 3 weeks until the fixed partial was ready.

Dr. Boyer also found that the Patterson material produces “a provisional that does not break, even in cases where the occlusal reduction is less than 1 mm, such as with zirconia, gold crowns, or limited occlusal space with metal occlusal coverage.” Because of the provisional’s durability, he noted that “patients are happier and it minimizes return visits.”

An avid user of several Patterson brand products, Dr. Greene made it clear that the Patterson Temporary Crown and Bridge Material more than measures up to higher-priced, name brand products. In fact, he said, “The more Patterson products I use, the more I recognize that they are competitive in quality to other brands.”