Relieving Stress The Composite Way

Laurence Bohan

Content Writer

Laurence Bohan

Content Writer

Laurence is a copywriter and trained journalist. His passion is creating insightful and educational content for dental professionals of every level. Outside of work, he enjoys watching sport, quizzing and spending time with his family.

Relieving Stress... The Composite Way

The process of placing a composite restoration can be stressful if the procedure used is not simple, straightforward and easy to understand. 3M has several materials designed to remove unnecessary stress at every stage of a restoration.

Composite Bonding

Most composites require bonding to the tooth with the use of an adhesive. The gold standard is sometimes thought to be the old 4th generation systems with separate etching, priming and bonding protocols which take time, are very technique sensitive but if done properly can provide an excellent bond.

The last 25 years have seen dental manufacturers simplify the adhesive procedure and we have seen 4th generation move into 5th, followed by 6th and finally to the 7th where all etch, prime and bonding components were combined into one bottle with one brush that could simply be applied to teeth.

2011 saw the end of the generation terminology with the development of the first universal adhesive, 3M Scotchbond Universal adhesive. An all-in-one adhesive with a starting pH of 2.7 meant that this could easily be applied to dentine and cut enamel, and with the use of a separate etching gel could be used to treat challenging surfaces such as uncut enamel.

Shop 3M Scotchbond Universal adhesive

A simple definition of CAD/CAM dentistry is the use of digital software to design and manufacture dental restorations and prostheses. CAD stands for computer-aided design and CAM stands for computer-aided manufacturing. The technology can be used to create crowns, dentures, inlays, onlays, bridges and veneers among other things. The speed of the CAD/CAM process allows for dental prosthetics to be designed, manufactured and delivered to the patient in quick time, sometimes the same day. The wider system of using computer assisted technologies to produce restorations is known as CEREC (Chairside Economical Restoration of Aesthetic Ceramics).

With the addition of MDP and Silane, Scotchbond Universal adhesive paved the way for adhesive systems that were not just designed for teeth but could also be used to prime the fitting surfaces of an indirect restoration, making it a truly universal adhesive for nearly all dental bonding situations.

2020 saw the technology improved further with the addition of some radiopaque resins and an improved silane coupling agent. The new 3M Scotchbond Universal Plus Adhesive is the world’s first radiopaque universal adhesive which now take all the guess work out of those shadows that we can often see lurking under restorations on radiographs.

Taking the guess work out of X-ray analysis; being available in one bottle or unit dose; and being indicated for direct and indirect applications, Scotchbond Universal Plus adhesive removes a lot of the stress and technique sensitivity often associated with the bonding procedure.