EASY SCREW ACCESS SEAL For those of you that use screw retained or cemented implant restorations, sealing and reopening the screw access hole can be time consuming task. The classic approach was to place cotton pellets that were wetted with antibiotic paste and sealed with composite. It was easy to place the pellets. However, whenever you had to regain access (temporary restorations) or (when servicing and / or retightening screws) it was time intensive and retrieving that last cotton pellet could be very challenging. And for those that have the ultimate faith in screws remaining tight (and little experience with the reality of screw fasteners) plugging the hole with Gutta Percha and then having to undo the densely condensed material could take forever. A much easier approach is to use plumbers Teflon tape (fig 1). You get it at any hardware store, and it is inexpensive and so easy to use. Uncoil an inch strand (Fig.2), twist or roll it into a rope (Fig.3). Then insert the rope end into the screw access hole (Fig. 4) and use a narrow amalgam condenser to compress the rope into the access hole (Fig. 5). As you near the top of the access hole, judge how much room you need to place the composite or Cavit seal and cut off the excess. The real benefit of this technique is that when you re-enter, after having removed the composite or Cavit plug, simply take your explorer and hook into the condensed Teflon mass and pull out the strand in one easy piece. Save a great deal of time in trying to retrieve that very last unreachable piece. Try it. You will find that its easy and very efficient. If you have any concerned about Teflon, you can set up pre-sized and sterilize them in advance.
Fig 1
Fig 4 PAUL BINON DDS MSD
Fig 2
Fig 3
Fig 5