A modified technique for preventing excess cement around implant supported restoration margins

Different techniques have been proposed for cementing crown restorations to implant abutments without excess cement extruding beyond difficult-to-access restoration margins. In one approach, a copy abutment is fabricated onto which the cement-filled crown is fitted extraorally, allowing excess cement to be easily removed before intraoral transfer. This article presents a modification of this technique, wherein hot melt thermoplastic material is used for the copy abutment instead of polyvinyl siloxane. This simplifies the technique, making it faster and more reliable. It involves injecting hot melt thermoplastic material into the wetted intaglio surface of the crown, fitting a dowel pin to serve as a removal handle, filling the crown with cement, fitting it onto the copy abutment, and wiping the excess at the margins before intraoral transfer and definitive cementation.