The next time your patient makes a yuck face at you with the accusation that the stuff that just hit their tongue has the most awful flavor EVER, you need to be sure and come back to this blog to share your experience so that your offending dental material can be rated accordingly.
For now, you’ll have to settle for this Top Ten, which was created by someone who is so meticulous about isolation that they never (!) get complaints about the taste of the following products:
The Top Ten Worst-Tasting Dental Materials
10. Air polishing powder
Some people like the taste of baking soda, which is why this is at the high end of the list. Others, you’d think that you’d hit them with the entire Pacific Ocean with the way they wretch from the spray. Young Dental has one of the better products in this category. And most patients actually do prefer it to the grit of pumice prophy paste if an operator is good at managing an air polisher.
9. Impregum Penta impression material
Fortunately the second generation flavor is much better than the first. But what is with the aftertaste? It’s not like you can use a rubber dam when taking a full mouth impression.
8. Vizilite rinse
Sour flavors seem to go over worse than salty ones. And because this cancer-screening pre-rinse is essentially vinegar, you may get a dirty look right before you start checking for the dirty bombs that are cancer cells.
7. Jeltrate Plus
Yum. Unflavored alginate with a splash of antimicrobial quaternary ammonium compounds to give it a little bit of awkward je ne sais quoi.
6. Compounded tricaine topicals
This is like benzocaine on steroids. Because it is not available in a commercial formulation, you’ll have to have a pharmacy compound the gel for you. John Hollis Pharmacy whips up a pretty mean cocktail of lidocaine, prilocaine and tetracaine at a decent price. It tastes pretty bad, but when patients rave about your painless injections afterwards, you’ll want a tube of it in every operatory.
5. Parkell Mucohard relining material
Not only does it taste foul, it gets bonus points for heating up while it’s curing in your patient’s mouth. This PDF from Parkell even cautions against leaving the patient alone for fear of spontaneous combustion.
4. Septocaine
Even a few drops of the local anesthetic inadvertently dripped onto the back of the tongue will make your patient want to chew through the stainless steel of your syringe. Be careful or else you will be switching back to lidocaine.
3. Viscostat hemostasis gel
Great for getting a lot of bleeding under control. Unless that bleeding is on the tongue. Then, not so great. Ultradent has addressed this notoriety by bathing their latest Viscostat with mint flavor ribbons. But I’m sure you can still taste the caustic astringency that would make bleeding to death not seem so bad.
2. The goo under a loose crown that you just removed
Can we all gross out at this one for a moment? And hahahahaha, they can’t blame this flavor on you. Which brings us to:
1. RelyX Unicem cement
Stag-nasty payback for that loose crown you just had to smell. RelyX gives you the ultimate in sourness and bitterness that lasts and lasts (but so does the bond).
_____________________________________
Why more dental product manufacturers don’t try to mask the noxious flavors inherent in their materials is a question that can’t be easily answered with chemistry or economics. If you’re not one to wait on this development, let your patients choose the flavor of their next crown seat or impression tray instead by carefully slipping them a few drops of one of these flavoring agents that are especially created for that purpose.
Pearson Dental Supply Flavorings
Practicon Flavorings for Alginates
American Dental Supply Flavor Kit
And when you ask your patient how everything tasted, they can honestly tell you it was just peachy. Or grapey, their choice.
Now it’s your turn. Which materials taste the worst to your patients? Leave a comment below to cast your vote.
What, no rubber base?
I haven’t used in 10 yrs or so, but that one was a WINNER!
I was sure it was specifically made to look like liquid poop and smell like one too..
hilarious post!
Gene
Western Dental
Dental Pharm makes a great Tricaine and Tac-4. It is flavored with mint that is really very patient friendly. I have also used it on myself and the products are amazing.
You can go to http://www.dentalpharm.com to order
or
go to my Facebook page for always updated information
Dentalpharm Wisconsin
Forgive me for not being a dentist, but as a patient I’ve got my own personal “favorites” from over the years. First off, I had braces and the sealant that was used to glue them to my teeth was just foul. I could taste it for over twenty four hours, though I’m pretty sure that was because it was still offgassing and losing any extra burrs that had gotten past the metal. It even made my mouth actually feel funny. Another was when I had my permanent retainer put in on the back of my teeth. The ceramic was hardened with a laser, but it still tasted foul for quite some time. Last, my temporary crown while I waited for the permanent one was quite bad tasting for a while, I’m not really sure why.
Loni from Fast Weight Loss
Traxodent tastes awful . But great hemostatic. Dry socket paste also tastes just horrid.
AAA Topical (aka “The best topical ever”) works at least as well if not better than compounded tricaine, and doesn’t taste nearly as bad. It’s a lot more runny and aqueous than most topicals, so drying the tissue is a MUST, or it runs all over the mouth, but my patients were much happier when I switched.
My worst, though, are a couple of mouthwashes. Biotene is great for people with dry mouth, but if you have normal saliva flow, it’s pretty gross. More because it’s got the texture of runny snot than the flavor, which isn’t all that bad. The worst, though, is Chlorhexidine! I rinsed with it so I could see what my perio patients were complaining about, thought “hey, this isn’t that bad”, then I waited. About 1-2 minutes after spitting it out, the aftertaste had taken full effect, and it is FOUL!!!
Was at the dentist today getting a temporary crown put in. The assistant sprayed something on my teeth that had the smell and taste of diarrhea from a sick dog. No joke since I have 4 great danes to compare it to.
Hmm… could have been #2. The anaerobic environment that your mouth creates under a temporary crown often smells and tastes like poo when you oxygenate it with a burst of air. Lucky assistants and dentists get to enjoy this aroma daily.