Interceptive treatment of tooth wear: a revised protocol for the full molding technique

A modern approach to treating tooth wear aims to stop its progression at an early stage and, ideally, to install effective preventive measures or, in cases when it is already late, to intervene using an interceptive treatment approach. It is important to avoid the need for a full prosthetic treatment that implies additional tooth substance removal, with potential biologic complications. As signs of tooth wear often appear in young individuals, an interceptive treatment has the great potential of stabilizing tooth wear progression early using a no-prep approach and composite resins. The additional benefit of this treatment approach is its affordability and maintainability in the light of tooth wear being, usually, a lifelong pathology. Among the various options for restoring tooth wear lesions with composite resins, interest has lately been increasing for molding techniques (single or full) due to their efficiency and simplicity. This article describes modifications of the basic full molding technique to alleviate most of the known shortcomings of this method; namely, the index deformation, the time-consuming removal of excesses in the proximal and contact areas, and the possible insufficient precision in the molding of the occlusal anatomy. The 1- and 3-year follow-ups of both cases presented here confirmed the functional and esthetic quality of the results obtained with this technique. A kinesiographic and 3D superimposition of the posttreatment and 1-year results of one case provided additional perspectives on this treatment method.