I’ve always been a fan of Tokuyama products. Their bonding and composites have consistently been at the forefront of elegant chemistry and continued striving toward simplified treatment. Plus, I have the absolute privilege of testing many of these products before they are released to dentists here in North America.
So I guess it's not hard to understand that I actually look forward to the month of February, when after having tested many of these products chairside, these highly progressive companies release their latest and greatest. Tokuyama has made better than good on that yearly promise and its called OMNICHROMA.
After using OMNICHROMA on over forty restorative cases of varying sizes, shapes and locations, I was not disappointed. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised.
Here’s why:
OMNICHROMA is a composite that blends into the surrounding tooth structure, regardless of the existing tooth color. Hence, there are no shade choices with OMNICHROMA. And in cases where the background shade is very dark, there is an optional OMNICHROMA Block Out composite that can be used as a masking agent.
How does it work? That’s what I asked, as I sat in last years ADA Annual Meeting where I received a highly confidential preview of OMNICHROMA. In a nutshell, it has to do with the ability of the nano-particles to reflect the surrounding colors as it’s own. Amazing.
In this blog, I’d like to show two very different cases in teeth of different oral positions, shape and shades. This is one of the finest methods for demonstrating the ability of OMNICHROMA to blend into teeth
I thought to myself: “The real test isn’t with light shades; those are easy. The real test will be how well the OMNICHROMA would behave in a fractured tooth lacking “background” for the OMNICHROMA to mimic. As luck would have it, in walked a fractured upper central incisor belonging to a wonderful patient. The site was prepped, and after rinsing and gentle drying, I applied Universal Bond, and dried. As recommended by Tokuyama, OMNICHROMA Blocker was applied as an initial increment and cured. OMNICHROMA was then applied and feathered into the margins.
Placing the OMNICHROMA was a bit worrisome, because uncured it appeared opaque and light. However, once the composite was fully cured, and the tooth allowed to at least partially rehydrate, the result was remarkable. Once again, notice the biomimetic ability of the OMNICHROMA to seamlessly blend into the surrounding enamel.
In the second case, I selected to show a dark lower molar. Following local anesthesia, the cavity was accessed and cleaned. After rinsing and gentle drying of the dentin, I applied Universal Bond, an eighth generation bonding agent that is simply applied and dried (no light curing – check out my blog on Universal Bond). OMNICHROMA was built up and cured in 2mm increments until the tooth was fully restored. The occlusion was adjusted and the composite and surrounding enamel polished. Notice the amazing chameleon-like ability of the OMNICHROMA to “melt” into the surrounding enamel. This is biomimetics at its highest form.
The pictures document the ability of this groundbreaking material to solve nearly every case in terms of shade, handling, polishability and longevity. Try it yourself, you wont be disappointed.