Tips for Fabricating Single-Unit Temporary Crowns
July 20, 2021
Dr. Beatrice Leung
Prosthodontist, Toronto
In this episode of CDA Oasis Live, Dr. John O’Keefe, Director of Knowledge Networks CDA, invites Dr. Beatrice Leung, a prosthodontist from Toronto, to share her insights into fabricating single-unit temporary crowns. Dr. Leung unpacks three specific clinical situations where the fabrication of a temporary crown is particularly challenging, and offers a workable solution in each instance.
Here are the key takeaways from the conversation…
- Long clinical crown with gingival recession – in this case, undercuts in adjacent teeth can cause the temporary to get locked when trying to withdraw it. Dr. Leung suggests using a matrix band on the adjacent tooth to block the undercut, and flowable resin to repair the deficient portion of the temporary.
- Very short clinical crown – make sure the tooth is prepared with adequate thickness of acrylic so that it is strong enough. Dr. Leung favors Duralon cement in this case as it holds up better than conventional temporary cement. Duralon is a powder liquid cement and she suggests that you mix it in advance as it can be a little tricky.
- No clinical crown (non-vital) – consider preparing the canal space to create room to place a temporary post to hold the temporary crown. Because there is no crown, there is nothing to make a template from. Dr. Leung uses rope wax to contour a crown shape before taking a sectional impression for the temporary crown.
We hope you find the conversation useful. We welcome your thoughts, questions and/or suggestions about this post and other topics. Leave a comment in the box below or send us your feedback by email.
Until next time!
CDA Oasis Team
Resource
I’m curious how you seat the template with a tofflemyer band on the adjacent tooth?
I use a liquid rubber dam (like the one used for in office whitening) to block out the undercut on adjacent teeth.