On the Cutting Edge of Adhesive Dentistry

GC America Inc.’s G2-BOND Universal helps uphold highest standards

Mark Kleive, DDS

When Mark Kleive, DDS, purchased his practice in Black Mountain, North Carolina, in 2011, he was motivated both extrinsically and intrinsically to build a reputation for providing high-quality adult restorative dentistry to the community. Kleive wanted to make his predecessor proud, and he had his own vision for the practice as well. Although he started his career working in a very productivity-oriented corporate practice, he had spent extensive time with mentors who convinced him that dentistry did not need to be like that. "These people talked with pride about their dentistry, their team members, and their patients," Kleive says. "That was what I wanted, and creating it takes work."

Kleive's practice delivers an "experience" in which the patient is considered a partner in the practice who deserves the best possible care, customized to his or her needs and values. "The term to describe it is ‘relationship-based,' which is often used with different meanings for different people, but what it means to me is that we make every attempt to not provide dental services to strangers," Kleive says. "We take quite a bit of time on the front end to understand where people are at, to learn what their ‘hope fors' are, and to ensure that we are aligning our work with their goals."

Throughout the course of his career, Kleive has built a team that shares his vision and pursued extensive continuing education. He is a visiting faculty member at The Pankey Institute and attends classes at Spear Education. In addition, Kleive is a fellow of the American College of Dentists and a member of the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. "I am certainly a learner," he says. "My patients deserve a dentis—and specialists—on the cutting edge of what is possible because what is possible today was not possible 20 years ago. Some dentists spend their entire careers doing exactly what they learned in dental school and nothing beyond that; however, others, like me, spend hundreds of hours per year on continuing education to make sure that the care that we are providing to our patients is the best and most up to date." Of course, using state-of-the-art products is a significant part of that philosophy. "Because we use so many products that were not available 10 years ago, we have better patient outcomes today," Kleive says.

One of the most impactful products that Kleive uses is G2-BOND Universal, GC America Inc.'s first all-around universal two-bottle adhesive system. G2-BOND Universal is leading the way to a new standard in adhesive dentistry with its proprietary Dual H-Technology, which provides clinicians with all of the benefits of gold-standard self-etch and etch-and-rinse products. One-bottle adhesives can be either hydrophilic or hydrophobic—properties which are better suited to bonding to natural substrates and restorative materials, respectively—but not both. With the Dual-H technology concept, the hydrophilic primer is applied directly to the preparation to optimize the bond to the tooth, and the hydrophobic bonding agent is applied on top to optimize the bond to the restorative material. The result is a restoration that is equally strong at both interfaces and provides less chance for failure.

Kleive has been using G2-BOND Universal since the product's inception, and he believes that it has improved the quality of his work. "My basic questions are the same for any new product. Is it better than what I have been using in the past? Is it more efficient? Will I get better outcomes? This product has delivered the right answers," he says. "The fact that it has applications across many different procedures in our office allows us to maintain a relatively low inventory of other bonding agents. It just does so many things well."

G2-BOND Universal is easy to dispense and is not technique sensitive. Kleive has observed predictable clinical results using it in self-etch, selective-etch, and total-etch/etch-and-rinse modes. "Depending on the clinical situation," he says, "I can use G2-BOND Universal in any one of those approaches, and the outcomes of the procedures that we perform are excellent. Furthermore, patients report reduced postoperative sensitivity, which I attribute to the quality of the bond that we are creating at the time of placement. The durability of the filling materials over time is also impressive. They hold up very well because the quality of the bonding system is high, and with the technique we use, the product works exactly as intended."

G2-BOND Universal also is known for its excellent resistance to marginal staining—a critical characteristic for a practice like Kleive's that promises premium esthetics. "You can place the most gorgeous restoration, and the patient can be thrilled, but if you are seeing staining around the edges of the margins 6 months later, then my opinion is that you have not met the esthetic demands of the patient from a long-term perspective," he says. "Ensuring that whatever products you use withstand the test of time is so important. If the marginal integrity of a restoration does not hold up and picks up stains, then the restoration is a failure because that is exactly the type of issue that patients notice."

Arguably, the most significant advantage of G2-BOND Universal is the versatility that it offers with its unique composition of functional monomers (4-MET, MDP, MDTP), which facilitates durable adhesion to a wide range of substrates. "More than anything, universal products that can be used for a broad range of techniques eliminate the need for five different bonding agents to do five different procedures," Kleive says. "That is the clearest advantage of this product."

With the ability to leverage that advantage while also achieving high bond strength and long-term durability, Kleive has a valuable tool in his quest to continue providing the best possible treatments. "I want everything that we do clinically in our practice to be predictable," he says. "Therefore, I demand products that will be predictable over time for my patients. GC America Inc. consistently provides outstanding products, and G2-BOND Universal is no exception."

Key Points

• Delivers predictable results regardless of your choice of etching mode (Self-, selective-, or total-etch).

• Achieves high bond strength and long-term durability.

• Demonstrates excellent resistance to marginal staining for premium esthetics that meet patients' long-term demands.

• Features easy dispensing and reduced technique sensitivity.

MANUFACTURER INFORMATION
GC America, Inc.
gcamerica.com
800-323-7063