[Restoration of hemi-arcades with amalgam]

As a rule should the half-mouth restorations in the frame of oral rehabilitation be done with gold inlays, overlays or full crowns. It is nevertheless possible to consider such restorations with amalgam and, providing that certain principles and technics and respected, such quadrant restorations could be valuable as well on the periodontal point of view as on the occlusal one. Regarding the periodontal point of view, it is now generally accepted that de restorations of the proximal aspects of the teeth have not to extend under the gingival margin. If this creates a risk for caries recurrences, still questionable, it eliminates the unavoidable periodontal lesions. Regarding the occlusal point of view, it is on the one hand difficult to build up a perfect occlusal restoration with a material which, on the moment the filling is completed acquires only a insufficient fraction of its final resistance. On the other hand it seems impossible to raise the occlusion in one or more teeth for the very same reason. The solution to this problem comprises a dubbel aspect. One has first of all to rebuild to the desired occlusal level the cavities of the whole quadrant with a temporary but resistant material wich allows at once a carefulness mastication. Polycarboxylate cement is suitable for this purpose. This temporary material is then replaced tooth after tooth in one or more sittings with amalgam. The second aspect of the solution consists in the use of amalgam wich acquires faster a sufficent resistance, allowing an ajustment of a perfect occlusion without the danger of fracturing it. Following the first estimates it seems that amalgam made of spherical particules and dispersed phase type alloys could meet with this requirements and bring an acceptable solution to our problem.