“PermaFlo DC, a composite luting/restorative material, has some unique capabilities. It has been put under the category of “dual-cure” because that’s well known to dentists. However, in reality, an actual dual-cure product would be able to be a stand-alone light cure product. Or, it would be a stand-alone chemical cure product in two separate, disconnected syringes,” Dr. Fischer, Ultradent founder, and president remarks. “The challenge with that, for years, was that all ‘dual-cure composites’, if used only in the chemical cure mode, would never polymerize as completely as they should, and would never come out as strong as they could if they had been light activated.”

He continues, “Where dentists really need a ‘dual-cure,’ is where adequate light can’t reach in the restoration to assure quality polymerization, like with an opacious crown or a restoration in the deep interproximal area, subgingivally.”

In regard to creating online slots a predictable, successful dual-cure composite resin, Dr. Fischer recalls that in the process, he and Ultradent’s research and development team came across a few challenges. “In order to make a chemical cure-only material that really cures to the maximum—one that doesn’t require light activation, but uses a different initiator that’s not the most ideal for light cure—it makes creating the best kind of ‘dual-cure’ composite tricky,” he says. “So, we made it so the syringe barrels of the chemical cure and light cure product were interconnected, but also so that the initiator was more optimum for chemical cure. Therefore, technically speaking, PermaFlo DC is ‘chemically activated, light facilitated.’”

PermaFlo DC’s “chemically activated, light facilitated” formulation provides numerous benefits to clinicians. Dr. Fischer explains, “If a dentist needs to get a faster polymerization, they can hit PermaFlo DC with the light, and that can be quite nice after using a bonding agent in a post channel to then deliver the composite luting resin to the post. Then, if the dentists needs to build a core up around that same post, they can express the PermaFlo DC onto the area, and before it begins the slump, they can hit it with a second of two of light, and they can continue to add the product, occasionally polymerizing throughout to prevent slumping, and then at the end it polymerizes in total chemical cure. It enables dentists to do things that otherwise would be much more difficult. The use of PermaFlo DC assures that the polymerizations occur to the maximum chemically, with a little help here and there with the light-cure element. That is why we chose to keep them married in the double barreled syringe.”

To learn more about Ultradent’s dual-cure composite luting/restorative resin, PermaFlo DC, please visit ultradent.com.