Advantages and limitations of the rubber dam. Part 3. Disadvantages and practical recommendations

This three-part series provides a comprehensive commentary on the positive and negative aspects of the dental dam system. This first part gives an overview of dental dams, discussing the methodology and key findings of a literature review on their use, advantages and drawbacks. A search of the literature, including peer-reviewed studies and grey literature, was carried out and the results analysed. Dental dam application was found to provide significant clinical benefits as well as having various limitations. Part 2 examined the advantages of rubber dam use in more detail, and Part 3 considers the disadvantages and limitations and makes practical recommendations to address these. CPD/Clinical Relevance: This critical analysis considers the disadvantages and limitations of rubber dam use and makes practical recommendations to address these.