A must for endodontic treatments

Nicolas Coomber discusses the importance of a rubber dam.

The effectiveness of dental dams should not be ignored for endodontic and restorative treatment. They offer many advantages to both patients and dental teams – they could be considered essential in reducing the degree of aerosol generating exposure (AGE) and contamination, as well as providing a physical barrier to prevent patients from accidentally swallowing or inhaling dental instruments. Dental dams are also extremely useful in improving visibility and making procedures easier to carry out.

Potential challenges

During root canal treatment, dental dam isolation is considered the gold standard of care because it provides the patient and practitioner with so many advantages. However, it’s still not commonly used among all dental clinicians, with less than 19 per cent placing dental dams during root canal treatment and 45 per cent reporting that they never use one. This may be due to minor issues such as inconvenience of application, increased cost and prolonged treatment time. However, it’s important to understand the wide-ranging benefits that dental dams could offer to improve clinician safety, the safety of their patients, and their treatment outcomes.