A quick tip against dehydration while doing direct bonding with composite resin in the anterior!

Often when we are performing direct bonding with composite resin in the anterior, we struggle, chasing the moving color target of an adjacent tooth that is slowly dehydrating and changing in value. A quick tip to counter this is to apply bonding agent to the surface you wish to match, often a contralateral tooth, at the beginning of the bonding procedure. It will tend to stay true and be a more reliable reference for color matching while you work. When you are finished, just polish it away!

Note how by applying bonding agent to both centrals, by the end of the procedure, both centrals look the same, while the laterals have changed significantly due to dehydration.

Try it out! It has worked consistently for me.

 THIN CEREC VENEERS

Introduction:

Monolithic Emax can take on a natural color gradient, warmth at the gingival, brighter middle third and translucent incisal third when the restoration is made transparently thin (0.3mm). Here are two examples of a feathered gingival-facial margin (no chamfer) with natural looking integration and an enamel bond. Case #1: The lingual half of a tooth had been sheered away due to undermining decay. A conservative crown was planned to restore the tooth. The preparation was designed to allow for 0.3 mm thick facial on the restoration (no chamfer on the facial margin) in order to allow the natural tooth color to show through and blend in with the surrounding dentition, and maintain the integrity of an all enamel bond. Note the transparency of the restoration upon try-in with water, and the seamless biologic integration upon completion

Case #2: The transparent crown prepared for tooth #10 with a supragingival margin, rivals the supragingival margin of the empress crown on tooth #7 prepared with a traditional thin chamfer.

Tooth #10 shown here with try-in paste.

The virtual "contact lens" effect of the thin HT Emax and the feather-margin preparation allow the meeting of porcelain and tooth to disappear after cementation.

Two weeks after cementation, now that the gums have recovered and the teeth are fully rehydrated, the actual color blend can be evaluated.

Due to the strength of the material and the enamel bond we have at the margin, we can expect this restoration to serve this patient for many, many years.

Just a few before and after CEREC cases demonstrating just how beautiful the possibilities of CEREC can be!