Strong bonding: supporting prevention and critical for your success
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 11th July 2021
Prevention has been the dominant approach in dentistry for some time. Much of the burden of oral disease can be prevented, halted and reversed and, if/when treatment is required, there are now minimally invasive options that will preserve optimal amounts of healthy tooth and mitigate later risks.[i]
More and more of your patients will understand this, and also the part they must play if they are to avoid unnecessary trips to the dentist. You will see some whose teeth show the legacy of a different era, of course, and who will say to you, “I wish I’d looked after them better, when I was younger!” – but these individuals still can enjoy the benefits offered by the developments in preventive knowledge and technique.
Practices were already adapting to support this approach; now, with all the challenges dentistry faces – many of which pre-date Covid-19 – the priority to intercept disease at an early stage, and to offer efficient and quality treatment that lasts, in as few visits as possible, has never been clearer. Less dental disease means better all-round health and the wider we can spread the prevention message, the more people we will help and empower.
Supporting prevention in every step
The philosophy of prevention must be integrated into all workflows and into every step of your treatment plans. Dental teams may vary in both size and structure, but whatever yours looks like, you should all be on the same page, aiming for one common goal. This sense of cohesion, so all patients understand how prevention goes much deeper than good daily brushing and regular appointments, can be backed up by not just what you teach and show them, but also by the products that you use.
If they require preventive-maintenance restorative treatment, they will expect an aesthetic result, as well as a stable one that is unlikely to need repairing any time soon. With the whole team working in unison to advise and guide, you can outline your recommendations then tell them how you will achieve something that is clinically successful, also functional and natural-looking, conservative and ethical.
Materials are the building blocks
Good outcomes rely heavily on good relationships with your patients, but even if you are proud of the level of engagement you have achieved, and put time and effort into your pre-treatment consultations, you must not let this become undermined by using materials that are sub-par. Discuss prevention in detail, talk about the behaviours and practises patients will need to adhere to, but also how you will be supporting their future oral health and any treatment’s stability by using conservative techniques and the best tools and materials.
Material selection is key to successful preventive dentistry because the right materials will support results that endure, years after treatment is complete. In dentistry, we often get so excited with new equipment launches that we forget the importance of the “everyday” products, which are the true building blocks of exceptional care. Developments in bonding agents, for example, have “revolutionised” both restorative and preventive dentistry; meaning that a cavity will not need to be overprepared in order to retain a filling.[ii] Excellent adhesives support the optimum preservation of healthy tooth structure, thus helping to prevent future problems. Effective adhesion will also keep the treatment stable, by reducing the risk of leakage.
Certain adhesives will also keep workflows efficient and reduce chair time, better for your patients and for you. When your materials allow, you do things more simply, this cuts costs too. Some bonding agents are multi-taskers and can be used with different application techniques. They also provide outstanding adhesive attachment of both composite and ceramic restorative materials to enamel and dentine. Again, this makes them better value and also will give every clinician more options. When a bonding agent is sufficiently strong, it will stand up to the mechanical force of biting and chewing; again, crucial when you are promoting a preventive approach to treatment at your practice. So, choose your adhesives wisely – COLTENE’s award-winning bonding agent, One Coat 7 Universal, is a reliable light-cured, one-component bonding agent that can be used with the self-etch, selectively etch or total etch technique. It’s a hard-working, high-value product that will allow you to deliver exceptional bonding to keep your restorative treatments stable, and beautifully maintained.
Preventive dentistry encompasses patients’ daily behaviours and practises, techniques, tools and materials. We need to work hard to stop dental disease developing through early interception, but when treatment is recommended, we can assure people that we will deliver it with long-term endurance in mind. Conservative, minimally invasive solutions, supported by hard-working, high-quality materials can prevent a problem recurring, prevent the emergence of new disease, and ultimately mean every patient can maintain a good standard of oral health, so their need for a treatment intervention is reduced in the future.
For more on COLTENE, visit www.coltene.com,
email info.uk@coltene.com or call 0800 254 5115.
[i] Birch S, Bridgman C, Brocklehurst P, Ellwood R, Gomez J, Helgeson M, Ismail A, Macey R, Mariotti A, Twetman S, Preshaw PM, Pretty IA, Whelton H. Prevention in practice – a summary. BMC Oral Health. 2015;15 Suppl 1 (Suppl 1): S12. doi: 10.1186/1472-6831-15-S1-S12. Epub 2015 Sep 15. PMID: 26391906; PMCID: PMC4580841.
[ii] Sofan E, Sofan A, Palaia G, Tenore G, Romeo U, Migliau G. Classification review of dental adhesive systems: from the IV generation to the universal type. Ann Stomatol (Roma). 2017 Jul 3;8 (1): 1-17. doi: 10.11138/ads/2017.8.1.001. PMID: 28736601; PMCID: PMC5507161.
