What is dental dam? Dental dam is essentially a drape for your teeth. It provides total isolation for the tooth or teeth in question. Thus it will keep the lip, cheeks, tongue and saliva away from the working field. This is vital in modern day dentistry where most treatment relies on adhesive bonding of some form. A dry field is crucial.
Dental dam is also essential for root canal treatment. Powerful irrigants are used to clean the canal which contain sodium hypochoride and EDTA. It is not pleasant if these are accidentally swallowed! Dental dam will protect the oral cavity from these substances and prevent the ingress of oral fluids into the root canal thus increasing the success rate of the treatment. So if your dentist is not using dental dam, ask them why not.
For modern day dentistry, it is essential.
Dental Dam! Does Your Dentist Use One
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Rubber dam providing total protection for the tooth
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Here you can see that dental dam is providing total protection for the tooth- complete isolation. |