Products to start the new year right

Joe Blaes, DDS

Preventive Care from 3M ESPE – Establishing a formal risk assessment program can be beneficial for your practice and patients. Achieving or maintaining a healthy smile requires a comprehensive program of professional treatment and patient compliance with home care therapy. Establishing a formal prevention program can help improve your standard of care. Your patients will appreciate a comprehensive systematic approach to establishing a formal risk assessment program. The most successful practices often say that they saw better results when they adjusted their approach to preventive care. These offices tell patients that caries, gingivitis, and periodontitis are diseases that can be prevented and treated. They discuss the causes that can contribute to these diseases to improve patient understanding. These offices also remind patients with existing restorations that proper oral hygiene is important for avoiding secondary decay. Successful offices advise patients that the success of treatment greatly depends on their involvement and compliance with treatment recommendations. They provide home care medications in the office to reinforce that these therapies are necessary to prevent disease. 3M ESPE has created a program that is simple to implement called the Preventive Measures Oral Health Risk Assessment and Management Program. A comprehensive packet includes a number of tools to help integrate the program into your practice. Included are a comprehensive brochure to assist in identifying caries and periodontal disease risk factors and treatment options, a quick reference poster, a reception room easel to inform patients about your commitment to the best oral care possible, and a tear-off pad of 25 Oral Health Risk Assessment Tests to help individual patient risk factors. Taking a more proactive approach to prevention can help you to raise the standard of care in your practice. For additional information, call the 3M ESPE Customer Care Center at (800) 634-2249, or visit the 3M ESPE Web site at www.3MESPE.com/PreventiveCare.

Hand Care Essentials from Hu-Friedy Mfg. – The company that has invested in the performance of your hands

Hand Care Essentials from Hu-Friedy Mfg.for more than 100 years now brings you a full line of hand-care products. The lotions, soaps, and sanitizers will be there every glove change, disinfecting hand wash, and day-ending skin routine. Nonirritating, cost effective, and latex glove compatible, Hu-Friedy Hand Essentials are a perfect choice to care for your two most important instruments. The complete line of premium hand-care products has been designed to help promote proper hand hygiene in the dental office. The line consists of products that support the specific routines that dental professionals perform daily, including hand washing, sanitizing, and skin protection as recommended by the CDC. Products include NOURISH: Sterillium® Comfort Gel™, which kills 99.999% of a broad range of nosocomial pathogens within 15 seconds. It is proven to significantly increase skin hydration after only two weeks. Alcohol-based hand antiseptics are intended for frequent, repeated use. REPAIR: Hand Essentials Skin Repair Cream, helps restore the skin’s natural moisture balance and is suited for dental professionals, especially those who are at high-risk for skin breakdown due to frequent washing. This is the only brand containing Olivamine®, a patented blend of ingredients that delivers all of the essential nutrients necessary for optimal skin health. This includes amino acids, vitamins, antioxidants, and methylsulfonlymethane to help protect against inflammation. Natural moisture-retaining oils, aloe vera, and dimethicone leave the skin feeling silky with no greasy residue. MOISTURIZE: Hu-Friedy Hand Essentials Moisturizing Lotion nurtures and soothes skin with colloidal oatmeal, aloe vera, and vitamin E. It is nongreasy and fragrance-free. CLEANSE: Hu-Friedy Hand Essentials Lotion Soap is pH-balanced and gentle on hands, making it a solution for dental professionals who wash their hands frequently. REFRESH: Hu-Friedy Hand Essentials Instant Hand Antiseptic Gel is an essential germ-killing aid to disinfect hands. It contains 70% (v/v) ethyl alcohol to disinfect hands of most common disease-causing germs, as well as aloe vera and vitamin E to moisturize and soothe the skin. PROTECT: Hu-Friedy Hand Essentials Antibacterial Soap is effective against bacteria, yet gentle enough for frequent use. It is a rich, lathering, clear soap that rinses quickly and contains 0.5% triclosan to help protect dental professionals from bacteria. Visit www.hu-friedy.com or call (800) 729-3743 to learn more.EndoVac from Discus – This is a true apical negative pressure irrigation system that, when used correctly, will

EndoVac from Discuseliminate the risk of an irrigation accident. This is a 100% safe device that provides 100% bacterial kill, and leads to less postoperative pain as compared to other endodontic irrigation systems. EndoVac uses a pair of patented cannulas to draw irrigant all the way to working length, and then evacuate it into the Hi-Vac suction unit. With no chance of apical extrusion coupled with 100% antimicrobial efficacy, EndoVac can provide quicker relief and faster healing for patients. It is also less expensive and easier to use than the original EndoVac. The EndoVac Master Delivery Tip allows for simultaneous and thorough irrigation and evacuation without leaks and spills into the patient’s mouth. Irrigants are drawn safely to the apex via the MacroCannula and MicroCannula, where they penetrate the smear layer and lateral canals to be finally evacuated through apical negative pressure. During the last several years, the EndoVac system has continued to evolve into a much more effective device. Now, the development of the EndoVac Multi-Port Adapter has vastly improved the functionality of the device, making it even simpler to use. This aluminum adapter plugs directly into your office Hi-Vac, and serves as a caddy for the EndoVac tubing and Master Delivery Tip. Gone are the days of having to rest tubing on the patient. The EndoVac device has been thoroughly researched, and studies show that it is safer and more effective than competing irrigation systems. If you routinely do endodontics in your practice, you need the EndoVac. Visit www.discusdental.com for more information.DentalVibe™ – This device invented by a dentist, Dr. Steven G. Goldberg, provides a 3-in-1 injection comfort

DentalVibe™

system. Fear of injections and needle phobics are the No. 1 challenge in dentistry. I have always felt that the best WOW experience we can give in dental practices is to not hurt our patients. You will get more referrals from patients if you have a pain-free practice than from any other marketing tool. Almost every dental procedure requires a transmucosal needle injection of anesthetic solution. Yet, research shows that fear and anxiety about the pain of dental injections keeps 50% of Americans from visiting the dentist. This results in an epidemic of untreated dental needs, excessive tooth loss, and overall poor health. When an anesthetic solution is injected by needle, the resulting tissue distention causes sensory receptors located deep within the oral mucosa to react and send a signal of pain to the brain. These painful stimuli travel along unmyelinated thin-diameter C nerve fiber axons at a slow rate of two meters per second squared. The counter stimulation of the DentalVibe™ beats the pain to the brain. The DentalVibe™ uses revolutionary microprocessor controlled VibraPulse™ technology to provide a counter stimulation at the injection site. VibraPulse™ delivers a pulsed, percussive vibration with enhanced amplitude that gently taps the mucosa in a synchronized changing pattern. This sensation travels quickly to the brain via A-beta nerve fibers. The changing pattern effectively closes the brain’s pain gate. DentalVibe™’s synchronized percussive vibration provides an ideal way to administer anesthetic injections without discomfort. DentalVibe™ is cordless, portable, and easily affordable for every office. Call (877) 503-VIBE or visit www.dentalvibe.com for more information.OptiBond XTR from Kerr Corporation – This is a new self-etch bonding agent that combines the power of a

OptiBond XTR from Kerr Corporationtotal-etch adhesive with the simplified protocol of a self-etch technique. The chemistry of the enhanced self-etch primer and the optimized adhesive in this two-bottle system brings better bond strengths to uncut enamel and dentin. The combination of Kerr’s GPDM monomer and the proprietary Ternary Solvent System in the primer boosts enamel etching, increases penetration, and provides the anchor for better bond performance. The Ternary Solvent System uses a combination of water, acetone, and ethyl alcohol. The water provides a medium for the acid monomer to manifest its acidity – necessary for an effective enamel etch – and it enhances the wetting ability of the primer to facilitate etching and penetration. The rapid evaporation of acetone increases the concentration of water and acidic monomer, and decreases the pH to give better primer etching. The ethyl alcohol enhances the wetting ability of the primer to facilitate penetration. As a result, OptiBond XTR provides great bond strength to all dental substrates in both direct and indirect modes (dentin/enamel, porcelain, precious alloy, nonprecious alloy, zirconia, composite, titanium), and further reduces any risk of postoperative sensitivity. Additionally, its five-micron film thickness and compatibility with self- and dual-cure resin cements/core materials make OptiBond XTR an ideal bonding agent for indirect restorations. This increased utility makes it possible for an office to use a single bonding agent for all restorations. For more information about OptiBond XTR, call (800) KERR.123 or visit www.kerrdental.com.Advances in Tooth-Colored Restoratives from IneedCE.com – Multiple tooth-colored restoratives have been

Advances in Tooth-Colored Restoratives from IneedCE.comdeveloped during the last few decades in the search for a material that has optimal strength, esthetics, handling properties, and a preventive function through the release of fluoride. As researchers investigated various chemistries, two main categories of direct, tooth-colored restorations evolved – composite resins and glass ionomer cements. More recently, hybrid materials were developed, including compomers and giomers. In addition, nanotechnology has been incorporated into composites as well as nanoionomers that contain components derived from both composite and glass ionomer technology. The inclusion of nanofillers results in a smoother surface, with wear resulting in the loss of fine surface particles. The end result is a restoration that offers excellent esthetics, good strength and, in the case of the nanoionomer, releases fluoride from the time of placement. (Note: Course is supplement with this issue)More DE Articles
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