Easy isolation

I was looking for a better way, easier way to use rubber dam. Rubber dam has been around for over 150 years. It is hard for me to believe that the innovation peaked 150 years ago. A brief literature search located two articles that proposed improvement of rubber dam (Sauveur’97, Ahlers’03).

Two common complaints that I’ve got from new rubber dam users are one, rubber dam sheath pulls the clamp out and two, it’s a bit awkward to take radiograph with rubber dam in place.

Clamps don’t want to stay in place. 

Two competing goals.  One, to put rubber dam on the frame stably, rubber dam sheath needs to be stretched and tightly placed on the spikes around the frame. Two, we don’t want clamps to be pulled out by rubber dam sheath so the sheath needs to be loose.  These are two conflicting needs.  We want rubber dam sheath tight on the frame but loose on the clamps.

In contrast to conventional rubber dam sheath which is a flat piece of latex, optidam has invagination or “drop”.  When use in patient mouth it has a lot of give so it exerts no tension on the clamp while around the edge of the optidam sheath provides enough tension to put on spikes around the frame.

Taking radiograph while rubber dam is on is beneficial because isolation and sterile field are maintained.  It is, however, quite cumbersome.

Although we can remove the frame or relief one corner to allow radiograph, it would be more efficient if we can leave everything as is.  Foldable frame comes in handy for this situation.

Combining optidam with foldable frame seem to solve all these predicaments.

Sources:

Sauveur G. Improvement of the rubber dam frame. J Endod. 1997 Dec;23(12):765-7.

Ahlers MO. A new rubber dam frame design--easier to use with a more secure fit. Quintessence Int. 2003 Mar;34(3):203-10.