Mitigar o Sofrimento evita maiores danos na habilidade?

De Complete Champion p 61:

You can temporarily relieve ability damage.
Prerequisite: Ability to cast 2nd-level spells.
Benefit: As long as you have any restoration spell or another conjuration (healing) spell that cures ability damage available to cast, you can confer temporary ability points on yourself or an ally. As a standard action, you can create 2 points + 1 point per level of the highest-level such spell you have available to cast.
These ability points can be applied to any single damaged ability, raising it to a maximum of its starting score. Temporary ability points granted in this way disappear after 10 minutes, returning the subject to its previous damaged state unless some other effect restores the lost ability points first. You can use this effect on the same individual as many times as you wish. As a secondary benefit, you gain a +1 competence bonus to your caster level when casting conjuration (healing) spells.

Esses pontos de habilidade temporária são "perdidos primeiro" como o HP temporário? Você pode efetivamente usar isso para evitar mais danos a essa habilidade pelo uso repetido dessa façanha? Meus instintos dizem não, mas não consigo encontrar uma resposta definitiva em lugar algum.