Written by Dr. Ian Shuman
A male patient presented with an old, broken Luxatemp provisional bridge made six years ago as a temporary solution to a porcelain bridge (Figure 1). Due to economic challenges, both then and now, a new crown and bridge material option, LuxaCrown, was recommended. Not only does LuxaCrown last longer than a temporary crown and bridge material, but as a chairside solution it allows me to provide immediate care. The patient graciously accepted the treatment plan.
The following treatment steps took place:
- An impression was taken with StatusBlue, an alginate substitute (Figure 2).
- A stone model was made (Figure 3) of the initial sitation.
- The broken bridge segment was luted to the stone model (Figure 4).
- The luted segment and lateral incisors were rebuilt using direct composite (Figure 5).
- The completed model is now ready for impression – StatusBlue was used for the matrix (Figure 6).
- A final StatusBlue impression was made on the corrected model that will be used to make a new LuxaCrown bridge (Figure 7). You can tell the patient is a smoker. The acrylic bridge picked up a lot of stains.
- The abutment teeth were re-prepped and refined prior to fabricating the long-term provisional with LuxaCrown (Figure 8).
- The final LuxaCrown long-term provisional (Figure 9) was fabricated and cemented.
The patient was thrilled, and I was happy that I was able to offer a more stable solution. My philosophy is that if a tooth has a guarded prognosis, it is best to perform a procedure that will attempt to solve the problem chairside.
