Crown and bridge are a bread and butter procedure in most general dental offices. I want these procedures to be as predictable as possible; however, each clinical situation presents its own challenges. Different situations require different retraction and hemostasis needs. This is especially true in today’s digital dentistry world where gingival retraction is especially important to obtain clear margins on your scans.
Here at the Dental Advisor, we recently received Take 1 Retraction Paste (Kerr). This retraction paste is available in two viscosities. The Low Viscosity is recommended as an adjunct to your traditional two cord technique. The High Viscosity is recommended in situations where you can use it without the need for a cord. This paste contains 15% aluminum chloride and kaolin clay that provides hemostatis as well as gentle retraction. For further retraction they include retraction caps in the kit as well.
Take 1 Retraction Paste claims are that it is gentle, yet effective retraction and hemostasis in as little as 2 minutes (with a maximum of 10 minutes). They say it is easy to clean up with water and air spray without residue. Both materials can fit in any standard composite gun.
Two viscosities 
Low viscosity being injected around model tooth 
High viscosity being injected around model tooth 
Enclosed retraction caps 
High viscosity in standard composite gun 
Low viscosity in standard composite gun
What were the Initial Insights of the Dental Advisor team and our editorial board?
– When expressing the low viscosity we were surprised at just how easy it extruded from the gun. It is very easy to extrude and place.
– You will have no troubles reaching the distal of tooth #2 with the high viscosity! The additional tip adds a significant amount of length to the compule.
– If you have used other retraction caps that were like very dense cotton rolls, you will notice a significant difference with the retraction caps included in this kit. They are very firm and more like a stiff foam material. We can see them firmly compressing that material into the sulcus and adding additional retraction.
– We tried a variety of composite guns and the material fit in all of the styles we had with no problem.
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!
