Temporary restorations: the key to success.

For newly graduated dentists, temporary restorations are often not seen as an important part of treatment, but rather a simple stopgap from the time the final impression is taken until the final restorations are fitted. This is due to the fact that the teaching is focused on single-tooth dentistry, where the requirements from the temporary are limited and relatively simplistic. However, as the dentist progresses along their career path and starts treating more complex cases, the need for, and importance of, high-quality temporary crowns becomes essential. They allow the dentist to maintain stability during treatment of more complex cases and provide the time needed to carry out individual procedures and multiple stages. This alleviates the pressures associated with these cases and allows treatment to be carried out in small stages. If treatment of a complex case is undertaken without the ability to provide high-quality temporaries, treatment may spiral out of control, become highly stressful and ultimately lead to premature failure of the final restorations. It is the aim of this article to discuss the importance of temporary restorations and highlight the concepts, techniques and materials required.