The big stressors in our day are obvious…the crown that doesn’t seat and you need to take a new impression, the little root tip you just can’t get out and you have to send the patient over to the oral surgeon…yes, these lead to big headaches at the end of the day. What we don’t always think about is all of the little stressors that just build up throughout the day. When it comes to flowable composite these little things include:
• Bubbles in the material
• Control over precise placement
• Bending the tip to reach without kinking
• Running out of material mid-procedure when it appears there’s plenty left
• Waste as material oozes out of the syringe (which is caused by back pressure from bubbles in the syringe).
These little stressors add up to big headaches by the end of a busy day.
Here at the Dental Advisor, we recently received 3M™ Filtek™ Supreme Flowable Restorative (3M). According to the manufacturer, this material is their same great Filtek™ Supreme Ultra Flowable, now packaged with a new name and in a new unique dispenser. 3M’s Filtek™ Bulk Fill Flowable Restorative will also be available in this new delivery system.
Features include:
• Low viscosity
• 9 Shades offered that are designed to correspond with Filtek™ Supreme Ultra Universal Restorative and Filtek™ Universal Restorative
• Ergonomic design that is easy to hold and inject
• Excellent adaptation, polish retention, and wear resistance
• Lots of changes to the syringe design (see images below)
New syringe design 
Syringe in medium sized hand 
Blue syringe barrel that indicates remaining material in syringe 
Easy to see what shade it is by large clear label 
Wide, triangular finger plate for easy holding and injecting 
Viscosity of material going into deep grooves
Placing material in deep grooves 
Viscosity/Consistency 
What were the Initial Insights of the Dental Advisor team and our editorial board?
– Many of our Editorial Board members are already using a 3M flowable product and are excited for this product.
– The little details put into this new design should help take away big headaches in our day, like bubbles and not quite being able to bend the cannula where you want for a precise placement of material.
– Assistants on our board love the big clearly marked shade label on the bottom of the syringe… no getting out your reading glasses to find the right shade!
– The viscosity seems a little high for sealants in some of the boards opinion, but likely ideal for a class III or class V… we cannot wait to see what the evaluators have to say!
What do our Clinical Evaluators and their patients think about this product once it’s used in their offices? Look for our clinical evaluation in an upcoming issue!
