As busy clinicians we're always looking for ways to be more efficient and more effective in our practices. One of the latest categories of dental products brought to the market by numerous manufacturers is gingival retraction paste, which is meant to replace traditional gingival retraction cord for tissue management cases. Ultradent's Ultrapak® retraction cord was tested against popular retraction pastes on the market to surprising results Touted as faster and easier to apply, the concept of a gingival retraction paste seems to check the efficiency box, but is it effective? Ultradent's Vice President of Research and Development, Neil Jessop, devised a means of measuring its effectiveness when compared to UltrapakTM gingival retraction cord and the results were surprising.

In all avenues of life, folks behind the scenes often don't receive the acclaim they deserve. From hospitality, to healthcare, to Hollywood, people operating out of the spotlight can be ignored while the front-and-center stars get showered with praise. Travelers thank pilots, but air traffic controllers go about their duties without garnering the gratitude flight crews receive. Dental assistants are in many ways the air traffic controllers of their practice, directing the complex flow of an office while caring for patients and undertaking tasks others overlook.

“PermaFlo DC, a composite luting resin, has some unique capabilities. It has been put under the category of “dual-cure” because that’s well known to dentists. However, in reality, an actual dual-cure product would be able to be a stand-alone light cure product. Or, it would be a stand-alone chemical cure product in two separate, disconnected syringes,” Dr. Fischer, Ultradent CEO emeritus. “The challenge with that, for years, was that all ‘dual-cure composites’, if used only in the chemical cure mode, would never polymerize as completely as they should, and would never come out as strong as they could if they had been light activated.” He continues, “What dentists really need a ‘dual-cure,’ where adequate light can’t reach in the restoration to assure quality polymerization, like with an opacious crown or a restoration in the deep interproximal area, sub gingivally.”

Like with many other dental or medical treatments, people have wondered if teeth whitening during pregnancy and breastfeeding is safe.

Recent articles suggest that there is a certain monomer responsible for quality bonds, but the truth is that the strength of a bond lies squarely in the balance of the chemistry of the product, rather than just one “magical ingredient.” Neil Jessop, Director of Research and Development for Ultradent Products, Inc. says, “It isn’t one specific monomer that promotes such high-level bond strengths, but the balance of chemistry and a synergy of components working together that affords stability, repeatability, and reliable, long-term bonds.”

The average mouth opening distance of an adult male patient is 30mm1. This limited range, coupled with the posterior placement of many restorations, makes it nearly impossible to position a traditional curing light with an oversized head or angled light guide. This typically forces the operator to tilt their light to a 45-60 degree angle, making direct irradiation of light on the restoration in posterior teeth nearly impossible.

While we all do our best to maintain good dental hygiene, a long dental procedure is nearly inevitable. The cheek retractors needed for lengthy chair time—and the resulting anxiety, muscle fatigue, and pinching—are just not up to the task. There are a lot of patients who can finally opt for a better experience.

Never a “me too” brand, Opalescence has, from the beginning, sought out new, different, and better ways to make whitening faster, more effective, more convenient, and more comfortable for the patient. Since its introduction of Opalescence® PF—the first sticky, viscous whitening gel available on the market (1990)—dentists and patients alike have come to expect exciting innovation with each new Opalescence product launch over the past 25 years. However, no one could have predicted the exciting impact the brand would make when in 2013, it released perhaps its most revolutionary product yet, Opalescence Go®.

All dental curing lights can cause ocular damage from the light they emit.1-3 The most damaging wavelength for the retina is blue light, near 440 nm, which is within the spectral emission from dental curing lights.4,5 Blue light is transmitted through the ocular media and absorbed by the retina. Dental professionals must be aware of and use proper protection from this blue light hazard6-8 because they have a duty to protect both the patient and employees from harm.