A review of SureFil SDR flow+

Barclay Woodward, DMD practices at Advanced Dental Care in Georgia. In addition to being an active member at several national and state dental associations, Dr. Woodward is a clinical instructor at the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry and an advisory committee member at the Valdosta Technical Institute Schools of Dental Hygiene and Dental Assisting. 

We interviewed Dr. Woodward to find out about his personal experiences with SureFil SDR flow+ and why he recommends it to fellow dentists. See what he had to say below. 

What made you choose SureFil SDR flow+? 

Our biggest complaint with traditional flowable composites was that we were apt to get voids from time to time. During Class II restorations, we would cure a flowable and then put the other composite on the top. From time to time on a hygiene recall, we would see a little void at the margin. We were looking for a solution, so we were excited to hear about SureFil SDR flow+. 

When they came out with SureFil SDR flow+, one of the things that was promoted was the self-leveling technology. You could place the material in the bottom of the box and it would truly adhere to the tooth surface. You would have virtually zero chance of voids, so we found that the self-leveling technology really did work.

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What are some of the biggest advantages of using SureFil SDR flow+?

Although I loved basically everything about SureFil SDR flow+  from the beginning-the adaptation to the tooth surface, the leveling technology and the fact that you could bulk fill up to four millimeters-one of my biggest complaints about it in the beginning was the radiopacity. It wasn’t quite the same as our composite that we were using on top of it, so I would see two distinct layers in the final product. 

While the process was drastically improved because it was speeding up placement time, that was still an issue. Since they have improved the radiopacity, now it looks exactly the same as our composites that we place on top. It looks perfect on an X-ray and I am seeing great marginal adaptation. 

We use it on every Class II restoration, because the ability for it to flow into those nooks and crannies and leave no voids is just awesome. 

What are some other benefits you see when using SureFil SDR flow+?

I think one thing that’s nice is the tip makes the dispensing easy and precise. You can get that tip into whatever position you need to. Once that’s placed, the self-leveling technology takes over. It adapts to the tooth surface very nicely. It makes it very easy to get a consistent result when placing these posterior composites. And it can be cured up to four millimeters. 

It’s the best flowable on the market, and we’ve tried a lot of them. 

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What are some of the patient benefits?

One of the greatest benefits of this bulk fill is for the patient. It speeds up placement and the patient is getting a quicker visit. The two main advantages are shorter chair time and the decreased postoperative sensitivity. It gives us a more predictable restoration. When placing these posterior composites, it probably saves us 15 to 20 percent of the time. 

Since we started using it, we’ve had no complaints of postoperative sensitivity. It almost eliminated patients returning for postoperative sensitivity after having composites placed. 

It really is a great product. Out of the last 10 years and out of all the products we’ve tried and changes we’ve made, it is our favorite. It really does act as it was advertised. It does everything they said it was going to do, which is not always the case. 

I was telling my Dentsply Sirona Restorative representative that if there was one product to show to a dentist who didn’t have any Dentsply Sirona Restorative products, this would be it. I can’t imagine a dentist using this and not switching.