User-friendly restorative approach combining shaping indices and PTFE-based stamp techniques: a feasibility example performed by an undergraduate dental student in a dentition damaged by caries and tooth wear

The rehabilitation of patients with wear on multiple teeth, in which a recovery of the occlusal/incisal vertical dimension is required to acquire satisfactory levels of functionality and esthetics, is often a difficult procedure even for experienced dental practitioners. Based on wax-ups simulating an ideal structural/functional reconstruction of the teeth, the use of shaping indices is a reliable way to plan predictable patient-oriented results when using resin-based composites. The proposal to combine shaping indices with PTFE-based stamp techniques also helps clinicians to easily achieve satisfactory modeling results giving them the unique opportunity to eliminate the presence of composite over-contours before polymerization. By using PTFE-based stamps the requirement to use conventional, strictly transparent indices becomes superfluous. In a clinical case with multiple caries lesions and tooth wear, the advantage of several simple operative measures including PTFE-based stamp procedures are presented as a feasibility example of this noninvasive or minimally invasive restorative approach performed by an undergraduate dental student. Keywords: composite restoration, direct/indirect restoration, no-prep restoration, occlusal/incisal vertical dimension increase, shaping index, Teflon stamp technique