The CAO Group and the University of Washington (UW) School of Dentistry presented what they call the first-ever reversible dental cement at the 2019 International Association for Dental Research Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, in June.
Many dental procedures rely on cements for placing dental prosthetics, researchers from the company and university said, so clinicians have long sought a cement to bond and debond dental prosthetics on command with patients.
“CAO has spent more than a decade researching and developing a cement that can bond dental prosthetics with light curing and be easily debonded using a diode laser system,” said Densen Cao, PhD, CEO of CAO. “While the debonding process can be as quick as 10 to 20 seconds, the integrity of the prosthetics and preps are not compromised.”
UW researchers first tested the cement system using extracted teeth and orthodontic bands. Results showed that orthodontic bands can be easily removed with minimal force after the cement is exposed to the diode laser. Residual cement is easily cleaned without damage to the bands or enamel surface.
“Reversible cement developed by CAO showed great promise for applications in restorative dentistry,” said Daniel Chan, DMD, MS, DDS, chair of the UW Department of Restorative Dentistry.
“The reversible cement can be used in many applications where cementation is needed. The prosthetics can be easily removed, and surfaces can be easily cleaned. It will facilitate and improve all clinical cementation procedures,” said Chan.
“The reversible cement could be considered for any of the cementation processes in orthodontics, including brackets, bands, fixed retainers, et cetera,” said Greg Huang, DMD, MSD, MPHG, chair of the UW Department of Orthodontics.
“CAO’s mission is to develop products that will make clinical procedures easier, faster, and better for both clinicians and patients,” said Cao. “The reversible cement is a part of our continuing innovations to serve clinicians and patients.”
CAO and UW are planning on more clinical validation and regulatory clearance in the coming months with a goal of making the reversible cement system available to practitioners in partnership with AMD Lasers in 2020.
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