Face-mask support made easy

Joseph Blaes, DDS

Pearl 1

IC Protective Eyewear™ from Crosstex Inter national. About a year ago, a good friend introduced me to IC Protective Eyewear™ from Crosstex, designed to maximize comfort and increase asepsis. Built into the glasses is a patented face-mask support system that has small hooks on each temple piece to allow your ear-loop mask to conveniently and comfortably attach to the eyewear. Because the eyewear and mask are combined, I can remove them and replace them in a single, fluid motion. This lightweight eyewear is designed in three contemporary styles.

Order through your dealer or visit www.crosstex.com.

Pearl 2

Astralis® 10 Halogen Curing Light by Ivoclar Vivadent, Inc. There is a lot of confusion about curing lights today. We are constantly bombarded with new curing units, each claiming to be better than the others. But with the influx of new lights come many questions regarding their capability and compatibility to fully polymerize all restorative materials.

I do a lot of veneers and posterior direct and indirect composites in my practice, so I need a curing light that I can use continuously with little or no downtime between curing. Halogen curing lights have proven to be dependable for polymerizing nearly all photo-initiated dental materials.

The Astralis® 10 halogen curing light is a high-performance, quartz-halogen curing light with a 100 watt bulb that enables the light to reach curing intensities up to 1200 mW/cm2. Internal electronic components continuously monitor the light's output, resulting in consistent performance.

For years my favorite curing light had a simple program that allowed changes to be made with the same button that activated the light. The Astralis® 10 works the same way. It offers four preset programs:

High Power Program - 1200 mW/cm2 for 10 seconds (will cure 2 mm increment in 10 seconds)

• Adhesive Program consistent light intensity at 650 mW/cm2 for 20 seconds
• Pulse Program
• Esthetic Cementation System (my favorite) - 1200 mW/cm2 for 30 seconds for curing through indirect restorations

Each program can be accessed with a one-button operation, and the status is clearly displayed on an LCD screen in the handpiece. Since there is no need to use the settings on the base unit, it can be stored away from the operating area.

Astralis® 10 has a good selection of light probes, including a power-booster probe and a tacking probe. This versatile curing light is lightweight, convenient, high-powered, and priced well below the cost of comparable units. It comes with a three-year warranty.

Order from your dealer or visit www.ivoclarvivadent.us.com.

Pearl 3

Renamel® Creative Color Pink Opaque™ and Renamel® Show-Off™ from Cosmedent®, Inc. This is a double-header pearl, because I have so many uses for these two products.

First, if you are doing any cosmetic dentistry, you need Renamel® Creative Color Pink Opaque™ for opaquing and tinting of your lifelike restorations. Every time I speak about anterior veneers, dentists ask what to do about teeth that are stained as a result of tetracycline or the dark endo tooth. My answer used to be a very complicated one about ditching and covering with an opaque composite, but now it is very simple. Just use the pink opaque from the Creative Color system. It will hide the dark tooth without the loss of vitality that often accompanies the use of opaque materials.

Now for the second product. Frequently I demonstrate how a cosmetic procedure will look, either on my patient or as a mock-up on a model. This is a great way to increase case acceptance and motivate patients to accept recommended treatment, but, with the price of composites, this can be expensive. Cosmedent® comes to the rescue with Renamel® Show-Off™, a new light-cured composite material. Show-Off™ has a unique chemistry that allows me (or my clinical assistants) to create rapid, inexpensive mock-ups in a matter of minutes. The material is easy to handle, and it has good sculptability. It stays where you put it and is self-sticking to the tooth surface, requiring no etchants or adhesives.

When using Show-Off™ in the mouth, I routinely take two before-and-after photos with my Polaroid Macro 5 SLR. I give one set to the patient and file the other set in the record or scan the photos into an image-storage system. The material can be removed easily from the tooth with slight pressure, or it can be light-cured on a model. Show-Off™ comes in individual syringes in A1, A2, and SuperBrite™ 3.

For more information or to order, visit www.cosmedent.com.

Pearl 4

Cercon Smart Ceramics by Dentsply Ceramco. At the International Dental Show in Cologne, Germany, last year I noticed the high use of computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) in laboratory products. I knew it would not be long before we would begin seeing some of these products in North America.

During a visit to MicroDental Laboratories in California, I saw an amazing new product from Dentsply Ceramco called Cercon. In a process that uses pure yttria-stabilized zirconia, Cercon Smart Ceramics is the first restorative fabrication procedure that combines traditional production techniques with the high precision of CAM processes. This material gives me the strongest and most beautiful all-ceramic restorations with an unmatched precision fit. More good news - I can use this material for one-piece bridges that will not break. A high-quality Cercon porcelain completes the process and assures precise shade-matching.

Cercon restorations can be placed with both conventional cementation and adhesive bonding techniques. No special conditioning of the framework is needed when using bonding.

Call MicroDental at (800) 229-0936 for details. Ask about their great introductory prices. This is a smart choice for beautiful, metal-free, precise ceramic restorations!

PEARLS UPDATE

The Dental Button by Advantage Dental. In the eight years that I have been using the Dental Button to make my matrix for temporaries, I thought that it could not be improved upon. Several companies have tried to imitate it, but none have been successful. I recently received a package of "new and improved" Dental Buttons from Dr. Joe and Ingrid Pelerin, the founders of Dental Advantage. I tried them and they are very much improved. The matrix buttons now soften in just 20 seconds in 150-degree water. They seem easier to handle and form around the teeth. Run, don't walk, to the nearest phone and call (800) 388-6319 to order these new and improved Dental Matrix Buttons. They make the best matrix for all temporaries and provisionals!

Dr. Blaes has a general practice in the St. Louis area. He is known for his expertise in dental materials and techniques and his innovative systems designs. He writes and lectures on "How To Increase Productivity and Profitability." Dr. Blaes is a member of the American Academy of Dental Practice Administration. He may be reached at [email protected].