Standing Out By Blending In: The Benefits of Unishade Composites

The possibilities of direct restorative dentistry greatly expanded when composites first became available, and as material technology continues to advance, those possibilities grow even larger.

With composites, clinicians can provide immediate outcomes for their patients with esthetics that previously could only be produced by a dental laboratory. Patients have come to expect tooth-colored restorations, and dentists have no shortage of choices when it comes to materials that can provide them.

The array of available dental composites allows clinicians to choose a material system that works best for their specific style of dentistry. Different viscosities, curing properties, and other physical characteristics separate one from another, and every composite resin has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. This means many practices keep a large quantity of different composite materials on hand to handle any direct case, whether it’s posterior or anterior.

For Victor Cedillo Félix, DDS, a general dentist in San Diego, California, composites are the go-to direct material, and he is always looking for materials that handle well, provide a natural fluorescence in the mouth, and offer a simple shade system. With some materials he has used, Dr Félix says the shade matching was unreliable or the material was too translucent once cured.

Always interested in finding new options that can offer him clinical efficiencies without sacrificing functional or esthetic benefits, Dr Félix is excited by the recent development of unishade composites. These materials are designed to reduce the number of shades needed to complete an esthetic restorative case. They achieve this using specialized nanoparticle fillers that are designed to mimic the light reflection of nearby dentition, allowing the composite to blend naturally into its surroundings.

For Dr Félix, having a unishade option for posterior teeth is a huge advantage because it removes the complexity of shade matching from the workflow, reducing the time required to treat the patient and the inventory of materials he needs to keep on hand. He has used several unishade systems in his practice, but one new solution has begun to stand out from the rest: G-ænial™ A’CHORD from GC America, Inc.

Featuring GC’s proprietary Full-Coverage Silane Coating and High-Performance Pulverized CERASMART® (FSC with HPC) technologies, the universal composite offers a combination of strength, durability, and esthetics, along with a simplified approach to shade matching, easy handling, and the ability to blend in with surrounding teeth. For Dr Félix, G-ænial A’CHORD is the first unishade solution he is confident about placing in any area of the mouth.

“G-ænial A’CHORD has an ideal opacity and translucency, so it can blend more naturally to anterior teeth, and it’s also great for posterior cavities that are stained by secondary dentin or previous amalgams,” he says.

He’s found the material to be a great option for incisal lesions as well as Class V caries. The system’s simple approach to matching all 16 VITA classical shades with just 5 core shades saves him time and makes it simple to get the shade of an anterior case just right. Dr Félix also likes the way the composite polishes and how it matches the fluorescence of the teeth around it.

Using G-ænial A’CHORD in his practice isn’t just saving Dr Félix time and reducing stress in the operatory. He says the material is also proving to be an economical choice because with a single, simplified option available for a wide range of clinical situations, he doesn’t need to keep as many different composite materials in stock. Whether the need is in the anterior or the posterior, he says that he’s now confident he can place a restoration that will become almost invisible using G-ænial A’CHORD.