Where High Strength Meets Easy Cleanup

Failed crowns. Challenging clean up. Lack of flexibility. When restorations consistently fail, you and your team struggle to remove cement, or your practice has to stock several cements to use with different restorative materials and in different situations, you know something has to change.

Consider, for example, this case described by Norman Cheung, DDS: “I had a patient come in because their existing crown had come off at another office a few times. I recemented it with the cement that I was using at the time. That failed fairly quickly. I told the patient that we’d try a different cement—Kerr’s Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal Resin Cement. The color change feature made it very easy to time when cleanup was optimal. Two years later, the crown hasn’t come off.”

Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal helped him solve several problems at once, including turning a dissatisfied patient into a satisfied one.

Strong Performer

“Maxcem has outperformed other cements,” said Jason Ingber, DDS, who has been using the material for over a decade to cement PFM and zirconia restorations, as well as posts. “I’ve had the fewest number of failures when using Maxcem compared to other cements. I used other RMGI cements and had about 20% failures after cementing crowns and I have gone back to what works best—Maxcem.”

Kerr describes the self-etch/self-adhesive cement as having one of the most secure holds, in both dry and wet environments, compared to other similar materials.

Dr. Cheung has had success with Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal in some unique situations. “Maxcem has been clutch when dealing with short clinical crowns,” he said. “I’ve also cemented crowns where preparations have been severely over-tapered.”

A Clean Sweep

Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal helps solve one of the most vexing problems in dental practices across the country—cement cleanup. In many cases, dental teams struggle to complete this restoration step because of lack of cement visibility. Kerr found the ideal solution in one-peel removal.

 When applied, the cement is pink, but then fades when it reaches the gel state, indicating that the time has arrived to remove any excess. In fact, easy cleanup was the key reason why Frederick Lin, DMD, switched to Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal. “We were using another resin cement, and the cleanup was challenging,” he shared. “We were using OptiBond already, so our rep recommended Maxcem as an option.” Since then, Dr. Lin has been using the cement for most of his crown-and-bridge and post-and-core workflows. “The color changing feature is really nice, especially for multiple units. The flexibility it allows for light- or self-curing helps, too.”

“The pink is nice because I know exactly if I haven’t tack cured the cement enough when I’m cleaning up,” agreed Saleem Baba, DDS. “Typically, I seat my crowns and have the patient bite down on a cotton roll, tack cure for about 2 seconds around the buccal and lingual, and then clean it up.”

Dr. Cheung shared, “The color change makes it very easy to tell when to start cleaning up the excess. Previously, if you waited too long, the cleanup was a pain.”

Dr. Ingber noted that often, it can be difficult to see the margins when using a clear or white cement, especially if the shade of the crown is similar in color.

“That’s why I like to see the pink cement along the margins when cementing a crown,” he explained. “because I know that there is enough cement. Usually, I light-cure the cement for 5 seconds, and then it is very easy to pick off the excess and floss the margins.”

Up to the Task

Whether you’re cementing inlays, onlays, veneers, crowns (including implant abutments), bridges, or posts, or you’re using anterior or posterior composites, ceramics, PFMs, metals, or CAD/CAM materials, Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal is up to the task. Dr. Baba uses the material with “pretty much all indirect restorations of crowns, inlays/onlays, and ¾ crown/veneers.”

Dr. Cheung only restores with zirconia, but he’s also recemented old PFM crowns with Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal. “I haven’t cemented any lithium disilicate crowns with the cement, but it’s nice to know that I can,” he added. “Not having to carry so many different types of cement is really nice.”

All Bases Covered

Having a cement on hand that covers all of your restorative bases maximizes efficiency and makes each case less stressful. “We’ve used Maxcem Elite Chroma Universal in multiple situations, such as crown and bridge, post/cores, implant crowns, and veneers,” said Dr. Lin. “It has really helped to streamline our processes.”

Dr. Ingber summed up his experience with the cement by saying, “It has easy cleanup with strong bond strength and ranks right up there with cost savings compared to other cements.”