So, according to my dentist in my home state I have a "true contact allergy to bleach shade Luxatemp" (direct quote). This is what happened when my temporary crowns were placed, a few years ago. My dentist had never heard of this happening before. When I asked him about what ingredient in the Luxatemp caused the reaction - he didn't want to give me a more specific answer. He still doesn't, because he honestly doesn't know. There's no real data that I can find. I work with 12 different dentists and every single one of them that I've talked to about this (8, I think) are confused and doubt me, until they see my swollen knuckles from accidentally brushing up against something.

After having my hands swell up even through gloves, and dealing with asshole questions like "why are you even here if you are allergic to something you have to work with?" I'm really trying to learn about what exactly it is that causes me to have inflammation in whatever area happens to touch a temporary crown.

Luxatemp isn't even really used at my job...most dentists here use Integrity. Those are two different brands for pretty much the same thing, though. As of right now, I avoid anything self-curing as much as I can. When the dentist is placing a temporary crown, I get everything ready on the cart and put it within reach and then I step out of the operatory while they are adjusting the crown with the handpiece, because of aerosols. I always wear full PPE, but it isn't enough. Every fucking time there is a patient that has a temporary crown, I touch something that makes my hand burn and get red and swell up. I even use the super thick gloves.

I've been doing a lot of googling on my own, because dentists are fucking busy and well, it's my problem and I have to deal with it. I started with the MDMS sheet for luxatemp and went from there. I learned about methacrylate allergies, but everything that I found aside from one case study talks about allergic reactions before they polymerize. And even in this case study, the patient had completely different symptoms than mine.

I just don't know what to fucking do. I have to wait outside like a child during prosths cases because even if I touch the shit for a fucking second, I swell up like a bright red, fluffy balloon. One dentist that i work with experienced vitiligo during dental school from methacrylates, and now doubles up on gloves but still gets her job done. Another dentist had burning and swelling from optibond (light-cured, but still relevant) for a while but has since gotten used to it.

I'm hoping this is something that I can get my body used to touching after a while. But, I don't know. I don't know anything about this because I can't find even one fucking other person who has had the same reaction.

So, I'm crowd-sourcing. I'm not going to stop working in this field no matter what, but I really would like this to not be a problem. How do I deal with this and still do what i want to do?