When principal dentist Tina Ferguson bought Village Dental Practice in Cuffley, Hertfordshire in September 2009, she introduced her team to more than just new surroundings. Like many of her contemporaries she and her team were experienced in using gutta percha. But after being introduced to smartseal by Charlie Nicholas from D2D Endo last year, Tina was interested. She was so enamoured with the products available she didn’t waste any time in putting them to the test in her new practice.
‘I wanted to introduce new materials and techniques into the practice and I wanted to use something that would improve my treatment as well as making it easier,’ said Tina. ‘For me, the things that encourage me to give new products a try are simplicity, ease of use for dentist and nurse, cost effectiveness and durability. I used smartseal, with the Sendoline rotary system, as soon as I purchased it and initially tested it out on an easy case involving one root canal.
‘I was nervous about using the new material as at this point I had only been told verbally how to use it and had not seen the technique or had a demonstration. However, I was determined to start using new materials and attempted to use them as soon as I found an appropriate case.’
The thing that most interested Tina about smartseal was its one point filling technique. She said she found this nature very interesting as it was nothing like any other material she had used, and she loved the ease of use of the point and cement, which is delivered ready mixed. Tina currently uses Sendoline rotary system, smartseal S5 points and bio compatible root canal sealer, smartpaste bio.
‘Using gutta percha was very time consuming and too fiddly,’ she explained, ‘There were a lot of points that would go to waste if they bent. Heating an instrument and trimming the excess was always time consuming and I had to be cautious. Smarteal is easy to use: there is no mixing involved in the paste and each point fits exactly in the prepared root canal, so there is no waste.’
Trying out any new product comes with its own teething problems and to start with Tina admits she had an issue with the system’s lack of opacity. But ever eager to put new products to the test, she purchased smartseal’s latest member of the family, its fully radio-opaque hydrophilic polymer, Propoint.
Following feedback from dentists who said they found smartpoints easier and quicker to use but requested the point be more radio-opaque so as to be more consistent with other products, the team at smartseal overcame this issue. To this end, Propoint was born and revealed to leading dental professionals at the BDA’s British Dental Conference and Exhibition in Liverpool in May.
Case history
The patient had severe pain from the UR7 for a few days and presented with a buccal swelling. The tooth was tender to percussion and a periapical radiograph revealed a periapical area.
Root canal treatment was started on an emergency appointment. The access cavity was cut and three canals were located. Hand files 8,10, and 15 were used to open the canals. Hypochlorite solution was used to irrigate the canals. Using the Sendoline Rotary System and S1 file the canals were opened in the coronal third. Under rubber dam the apex locator was used to measure the length of each root canal. Once the apex was determined the canals were prepared with S2 files. The apex of the palatal canal was reached with a S2 file and the mesio-buccal and disto-buccal with a S3 file. Each canal was flushed with hypochlorite and a size 15 hand file was used to maintain patency. A dressing was placed in the tooth of Hypocal and IRM temporary to seal the cavity.
On the patient’s return, there had been no pain and the tooth had settled. Using the working lengths established, a radiograph was taken with the Propoints and then each was filled using smartpaste bio and Propoints. Propoint 2 for the palatal canal and Propoint 3 for the mesio-buccal and disto-buccal canal respectively. The points were trimmed with scissors and a diamond bur and a composite filling placed in the cavity.
A post-op radiograph revealed three nicely filled root canals. The patient has attended for a review and has not had any post-op pain.
For more information email info@smart-seal.co.uk or visit www.smart-seal.co.uk