Pediatric Composite Restoration—Efficiency, Efficacy, and Excellence

Taking care of your pediatric patient population can be one of the most rewarding aspects of your family practice; however, it can also be one of the most demanding. As dental professionals, we are all acutely aware of the dynamics and challenges of the relationship between pediatric patients, their parents, and the dental team. Our pediatric patients always require some degree of behavior management. Although there are many different techniques and approaches that can be used to effectively guide pediatric patient behavior, no single one will be successful for all of your patients all of the time. With the time and effort required to maintain a calm and cooperative pediatric patient and parent, the dental team should not have any concerns about the reliability and efficiency of their equipment and materials.

Dental caries is unfortunately alive and well in our pediatric patients, and it remains a leading chronic disease among this population. Because of this, a great deal of energy is focused on restoring patients with primary and mixed dentition. In North America, composite resin is an extremely popular material of choice for intracoronal restorations. However, restoring the teeth of children whose cooperation and compliance can be unpredictable with composite resin, which is both hydrophobic and technique sensitive, can be a tall order. Tokuyama Dental America has introduced a unique composite resin material, OMNICHROMA^®, that can help make your pediatric restorative protocol faster and easier. As the name implies, OMNICHROMA is omnichromatic. It is a single-shade composite resin material that will match all pediatric tooth shades. Among other benefits, this means that you no longer need to perform shade-matching procedures or purchase multiple shades of composite only to throw away the less common shades that you don't use before they have expired. This material's "one-shade-matches-all" properties make pediatric restoration both efficient and cost-effective. In addition, OMNICHROMA is highly filled with exceptionally polishable silicone oxide and zirconia oxide fillers. This means that the material has great physical and mechanical properties, including low shrinkage, high wear resistance, and high compressive strength, and that finishing is almost effortless. Best of all, it is a durable and reliable composite resin restorative material that is suitable for both anterior and posterior restorations.