Retention Of Long-Term Interim Restorations With Sodium Fluoride Enriched Interim Cement

Purpose: Interim fixed dental prostheses, or provisional restorations , are fabricated to restore teeth when definitive prostheses are made indirectly. Patients undergoing extensive prosthodontic treatment frequently require provisionalization for several months or years. The ideal interim cement would retain the restoration for as long as needed and still allow for ease of removal. It would also avoid recurrent caries by preventing demineralization of tooth structure. This study aims to determine if adding sodium fluoride varnish to interim cement may assist in the retention of interim restorations. Materials and methods: stainless steel dies representing a crown preparation were fabricated. Provisional crowns were milled for the dies using CAD/CAM technology. Crowns were provisionally cemented onto the dies using TempBond NE and NexTemp provisional cements as well as a mixture of TempBond NE and Duraphat fluoride varnish. Samples were stored for 24h then tested or thermocycled for 2500 or 5000 cycles before being tested. Retentive strength of each cement was recorded using a universal testing machine. Results: TempBond NE and NexTemp cements performed similarly when tested after 24h. The addition of Duraphat significantly decreased the retention when added to TempBond NE. NexTemp cement had high variability in retention over all tested time periods. Thermocycling for 2500 and 5000 cycles significantly decreased the retention of all cements. Conclusions: The addition of Duraphat fluoride varnish significantly decreased the retention of TempBond NE and is therefore not recommended for clinical use. Thermocycling significantly reduced the retention of TempBond NE and NexTemp. This may suggest that use of these cements for three months, as simulated in this study, is not recommended