Five years' experience with the gold button technique for intraoral interstitial implants with iridium-192 seeds.

To simulate crossing of the ends in standard removable interstitial implants, we used the loop technique for intraoral tumors when treating them with afterloading interstitial removable implants. Because of technical problems, we changed to a straight tube method with heavy end-loading to compensate for the uncrossed ends. High doses to the normal mucosa close to heavy end-loading is reduced 2.5 times by the use of gold buttons in place of standard stainless steel buttons, thus decreasing unnecessary mucosal reactions and morbidity.