BeautiBond Xtreme: An Economical, Versatile Universal Bonding Agent

When patients express concern about postoperative sensitivity, Neville Hatfield, DMD, MBS, can empathize. "I am the proverbial poster child of a patient when it comes to postoperative sensitivity," says Hatfield, a general dentist in a group practice in northern New Jersey. "The most important thing to me as a practitioner is to treat my patients as I would treat myself or my family. My choice of materials and procedures is based on how they best serve the patient."

So when the clinician himself needed a restoration, Hatfield specifically requested that Shofu's BeautiBond Xtreme bonding agent be used. "I typically have lingering sensitivity after composite restorations, but the HEMA-free composition of BeautiBond Xtreme and the quality of Shofu's products really shine through." He explains that he had an old composite resin restoration on tooth No. 14 (MO) with recurrent decay. The restoration had no radiopacity and went unnoticed until it was so undermined that a complete bond failure occurred when he bit down on something the wrong way.

"When my boss was restoring the tooth, I asked him to use BeautiBond Xtreme along with Beautifil II (packable composite) and Beautifil Flow Plus X (flowable nanohybrid restorative)," Hatfield says. "With BeautiBond Xtreme and Shofu's Beautifil composites, which have the proprietary bioactive Giomer Technology, I had zero postoperative sensitivity immediately after the local anesthesia wore off."

BeautiBond Xtreme features Quad-Adhesive Technology, which Hatfield says allows the bonding agent to adhere to both the restorative substrate and tooth structure without the need for any additional primers-ie, no extra bottles. "I use BeautiBond Xtreme in every application where I would need a bonding, priming, or silane agent. This simplifies our restorative and cementation procedures, such as post-cementation, immediate dentin sealing, bonding of ceramic/zirconia restorations, etc.," he says. "It's a truly universal adhesive system in that it can be used with self-etch, selective-etch, and total-etch techniques and on direct and indirect restorations."

Additionally, BeautiBond Xtreme "only needs a single well-distributed layer of bond on the surface of the tooth and/or restoration to work," Hatfield states. "This means using less volume per application compared to other universal bonding agents, thus cost savings." Plus, with a film thickness of only 5 µm, marginal stain lines are minimized to aid esthetics.

BeautiBond Xtreme's solvent/carrying agent is acetone, so it works well in moist environments and is less technique-sensitive during application, Hatfield says. Also, the extra-fine dispensing nozzle of the bottle allows for a precise amount of bond dispensation. "I typically use one drop for premolar and anterior procedures, and two to three for larger/molar procedures, which means less wasted bonding agent. I tend to use less bonding agent per instance of use."

Neville Hatfield, DMD, MBS
Private Practice, Mahwah,
New Jersey

Shofu Dental
800-827-4638
shofu.com