Point of Care The “Point of Care” section answers everyday clinical questions by providing practical information that aims to be useful at the point of patient care. The responses reflect the opinions of the contributors and do not purport to set forth standards of care or clinical practice guidelines. Readers are encouraged to do more reading on the topics covered. If you would like to contribute to this section, contact editor-in-chief Dr. John O’Keefe at
[email protected]. Q U E S T I O N 1 How can I limit the number of different dental cements available in my dental practice and still be able to address all prosthetic clinical situations? Background cements currently being used in our prosthodontic s a clinician’s repertoire expands to include group practice (Table 1). various indirect restorations, there is a ten- Adency to accumulate a large number of dif- �hoice of Dental Cements ferent dental cements in the office. As prosthetic Conventional Fixed Prosthodontics materials each demand specific luting agents, Provisional restorations can be cemented with logistic headaches arise for both the dentist and calcium hydroxide (Dycal, Dentsply International, staff. Regrettably, the “universal” dental cement is York, Penn.), as this material is easy to manipulate, still elusive. readily available and does not interfere with or Several types of dental cement are available, compromise the integrity of the permanent ce- each possessing unique properties and handling ment. One generally places it on the margins of an characteristics; no one product is ideal for every interim restoration, then seats the restoration.