Full-Mouth Adhesive Rehabilitation of a Severely Eroded Dentition: The Three-Step Technique. Part 1

Traditionally, a full-mouth rehabilitation based on full-crown coverage has been the recommended treatment for patients affected by severe dental erosion. Nowadays, thanks to improved adhesive techniques, the indications for crowns have decreased and a more conservative approach may be proposed. Even though adhesive treatments simplify both the clinical and laboratory procedures, restoring such patients still remains a challenge due to the great amount of tooth destruction. To facilitate the clinician's task during the planning and execution of a full-mouth adhesive rehabilitation, an innovative concept has been developed: the three-step technique. Three laboratory steps are alternated with three clinical steps, allowing the clinician and the laboratory technician to constantly interact to achieve the most predictable esthetic and functional outcome. During the first step, an esthetic evaluation is performed to establish the position of the plane of occlusion. In the second step, the patient's posterior quadrants are restored at an increased vertical dimension. Finally, the third step reestablishes the anterior guidance. Using the three-step technique, the clinician can transform a full-mouth rehabilitation into a rehabilitation for individual quadrants. This article illustrates only the first step in detail, explaining all the clinical parameters that should be analyzed before initiating treatment.