They just put it on me, it worked just fine, then it came off on command without a trace (back in the 80's.) But I'm wondering what it chemically actually is.
It's called, simply enough, dental cement, but chemically, it's usually zinc phosphate. Sometimes the zinc phosphate is mixed with polyacrylic acid, creating polycarboxylate cement. and in response to the additional detail: I don't know how the zinc phosphate cement is removed, but for the carboxylate, they use organic acids (especially citric, I think).
