A 56-year-old female patient complained of a chipped upper right central incisor. Tooth #8 had a chip on the incisal edge and was very sharp. The patient also didn’t like the looks of the chipped tooth. The patient was informed that when the front teeth wear down, the remaining enamel is thin, brittle, and unsupported. That way if the restoration chips again, the patient won’t be too surprised. This also helps to encourage the patient to not chew hard food, bite fingernails, or other deleterious habits that may cause the restoration to fail. The material selected for this procedure was OMNICHROMA FLOW and complementary OMNICHROMA BLOCKER FLOW (Tokuyama Dental). This material will take on the shade of the surrounding enamel and works extremely well for small restorations, such as this clinical case.
Repairing a small chip on the incisal edge can be very difficult to match the color and very difficult to obtain a long lasting permanent result. This is especially true if the patient grinds or clenches their teeth. It can be helpful to inform the patient to be careful of bad habits, such as biting nails, pencils, or pens and biting down on hard foods. A night guard should be advised to protect the teeth from hard occlusal trauma at night. When the composite restoration comes out and the patient didn’t follow the dentist’s advice, they have themselves to blame! Getting the shade correct on an anterior tooth is also very important. This article will show how a new composite material called OMNICHROMA (Tokuyama Dental America) works well to blend into the color of the natural tooth using structural color.
I was fortunate to be present for the release of Estelite Omega Composite Restorative System (Tokuyama Dental America) at the California Dental Association meeting in 2011 (Anaheim, CA). I was there to help the creator of this incredible product, Dr. Newton Fahl Jr., while he gave his first hands-on workshop with the new material. I was also given a complete Estelite Omega kit and have used the product as my “go to” anterior composite ever since.