IRM/ZOE Dental Fillings and Tips for Dental Assistants

We all know intermediate restorative materials like ZOE comes with measuring spoon and dropper for the liquid.

The smell of eugenol is pleasing to me. Yet, it was not a pleasant experience to mix when the measuring spoon is permanently absent in one of my part-time places

That tiny thing is very useful to measure the powder. Without it, eyeballing the powder and mixing it to the consistency is really hard

The assistant working there full time seems to love it that way and she gets everything right too. 

If you need some kind of help, first you look online, right?

Sure enough, there are videos. There are helpful articles. 

I found an article on columbia university website.

While, it says to roll the mixed cement in to a long roll, my boss wanted to get it rolled in to a ball. 

The following video shows how to mix it properly.

I kind of eyeballed the powder and placed it exactly like they did.
Then, mixing very carefully, incorporating increments of powder to make the desired consistency.
Now, I can mix the ZOE for temporary fillings without much difficulty. This video is a great reference. 

The dentist (my boss) liked to shape and clean the filling with a wet cotton tipped applicator. 

To do a further more research about this intermediate restorative dental material is not going to hurt me. So, I decided to have a look on the contents. 
It has the smell of clove oil. The Eugenol is extracted from the clove oil. 
So, when they use ZOE as a temporary filling material?
The tooth must have a deep decay, which is almost touching the nerve. If they do drill for cavity preparation, the pulp will be infected. The tooth will be a sure candidate for RCT. The temporary placement of ZOE will help the tooth to heel and a final filling can be done.

Tip for Assistants:
Just remember that dentists usually don't use matrix bands, even if the cavity is interproximal and huge, for the IRM/ZOE fillings.
What is the reason?
The material is putty like. So, when removing the matrix band, the filling will come out with the bank. 
So just remember, when your DDs is doing an IRM filling, never offer a matrix band.

If there is any eye or skin  contact with the material, just wash it off with water. 

ZOE has anaesthetic and antibacterial properties too. 

 Did you know that it was introduced in the 1890s? 

References: http://www.blogdental.es/Keogh/?p=595
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zinc_oxide_eugenol
http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/67707/10.1177_00220345660?sequence=2