What Are Your Favorite Products To Use for Indirect Restorations?
Kristine Aadland, DMD, a CEREC mentor and advocate of CAD/CAM technology for bridges, implants, orthodontics, and same-day smile makeovers, practices in Vancouver, WA. Here, she shares her top products for indirect restorations.
I can honestly say that if you took my Primescan away, I would no longer practice dentistry. In a world that demands instant gratification, I can deliver high-quality, beautiful restorations in a single visit. We use it to restore with anterior and posterior crowns, implants, and bridges, as well as scan for aligners, night guards, and sleep devices. With the software's artificial intelligence constantly learning about my margins and design preferences, I have to do very little to the proposals.
With a busy practice that runs lean on team members, DryShield mouthpieces are crucial. Not only do they allow fantastic isolation in an environment where we are constantly bonding, but they allow me to work alone if my assistant needs to help another patient or go grab an instrument. DryShield has both autoclavable and disposable options, and the mouthpieces are comfortable for the patient.
While I use DryShield for posterior regions, I love to use Ivoclar Vivadent’s OptraGate for retraction in the anterior. This makes CAD/CAM scanning and anterior fillings easier. I don’t have to deal with cotton rolls or the lips and cheeks getting in the way.
Cosmedent’s Pink Opaque is the best-kept secret if you do any cosmetic dentistry or use translucent porcelains. I use this material every day to block out metals, sclerotic dentin, and dark teeth prior to the final restoration. It works like a flowable composite: You bond the opaquer on the tooth, add a thin layer of material, light-cure, and it will turn your prep white.
Cervitec Plus from Ivoclar Vivadent is one of those rare gems my hygiene team raves about. We apply this chlorhexidine varnish on root surfaces for sensitivity, on inflamed gingival tissue after restorative cases, and even use it during SRP.
Kuraray’s PANAVIA SA Cement Universal has become our go-to resin cement in both practices I own. Its built-in long chain silane coupling agent (LCSi monomer) produces a chemical bond to porcelain, lithium disilicates, and composite resins, and the original MDP monomer allows for chemical reactiveness with metals, dentin, and enamel. It's simple to use, and we have not experienced sensitivity or debonds.