A hot time in the old club tonight?


I host my study club nine or ten times a year. I always make sure to provide tasty food before hand, because, you know...food tends to sooth the savage beast ( just joking). I started the meeting by discussing our club renewals ( this usually involves my members being informed of their yearly renewal fee!). I then moved on to presenting what I thought was an interesting multidisciplinary case involving a single tooth replacement of a maxillary central incisor.

This was the sort of  case that many experienced dentists experience some trepidation before treating. We all have patients like this one and a positive outcome is never a forgone conclusion. After years of practice most of us have experienced a poor outcome or two. Most of us are always searching for a slightly better recipe in order to achieve a trouble free way to ensure degree of predictable road to achieving a beautiful result that will stand the test of time. This is why I believe that most of our members are experience practitioners who have earned their  share of grey hairs. Yes we have some younger members but the format promotes comprehensive ideal care and can feature complicated cases of the type  that most younger members have not yet had the pleasure to treat and watch fail eventually. Experienced practitioners know that sooner or later these cases will show up in their practices and they really need to know how treat patients who do not want to be referred out to some other dentist if possible. When we do choose to treat a complicated case we really understand how much time and money will be invested by us and our patient and a failure ends up costing our practices money and can harm our standing with a loyal patient as well.

My case presentation had an end result that was quite nice, if I am allowed a little immodesty, but unexpectedly, when we discussed our treatment planning for the case a "lively" discussion ensued. There was no real consensus as exactly how the missing tooth should be replaced: suggestions included a single tooth implant, a three unit bridge, a four unit bridge, a six unit bridge, or extraction of the adjacent intact central and the placement of a two tooth cantilever implant restoration. Our clubs conversation was animated to say the least and many of the members of my club are highly knowledgeable and are passionately vocal when voicing their opinions.

Fortunately by the end of my presentation we had all made up and a good time was had by all. I think this back and forth between highly competent dentists is actually our reason for attending the club, since it can be extremely enlightening hearing how each of us goes about diagnosing and treatment planning difficult cases.









from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2018/02/a-hot-time-in-old-club-tonight.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Help! My Child is Terrified of the Dentist

Image
If you’re the parent of a young child, you know their brains are similar to sponges that soak up everything around them—especially in their first five years, which neuroscientists say is when they’ll do the most learning and developing in their entire life. At this formative time, your child may amaze you with what they notice: your facial expressions, the different tones of your voice, and your habits. If your habits include regular dental visits and an excellent oral hygiene routine, they’ll notice and want to emulate you. If you happen to feel anxious about your dental visits, or you groan when you’ve got to floss and brush, they may synchronize and feel your dread. This could lead to dental fears that stick with them for years—potentially a lifetime! Kids Can Be Courageous If you’re feeling guilty right now, go ahead and put that away as it won’t serve you or your little one. Everyone has some room for improvement, and Coastal Pediatric Dentistry® is here to help show you an
Read more

Going for the Gold?

Image
On the left is the older allow, on the right the new one that my lab has chosen to use The cost of a penny weight of pure gold is currently $79.53. The cost of a penny weight of pure palladium is $130.6. It used to be that palladium was added instead of gold to the precious metals often used for pfms, but now laboratories are finding that palladium is no longer affordable. The lab that I am using has just changed the formulation of the metal it's using to one that has more gold than palladium. I really do not mind, but metals with more gold are softer and often easier for a dentist to accidentally polish off delicate margins. It is important when polishing "higher gold" formulations to exert less hand pressure when performing the final polishing of the crown's margins. Other wise there should be no problem with this change. Traditionally labs have chosen alloys with higher gold percentages for optimal esthetics, since alloys with higher concentrations of
Read more

Lemon Juice – The Good, the Bad, & the Sour

Image
In a great tale of opposites, lemon juice can be both acidic and basic, or alkaline. Read on to find out why people are talking about this, and what it means for your oral and overall health . What is pH and why does it matter? Drinking lemon juice (usually diluted in a glass of water or added to a cup of tea) is a beloved health tonic among fans of natural medicine. Potential benefits include lower cholesterol, lower inflammation in the body, and increased metabolism and energy. Lemon also contains high levels of antioxidants and vitamin C that boost your immune system. On a scale from 0-14, a pH of 7 is neutral (pure water) while numbers below 7 are acidic (unhealthy), and above 7 are basic or alkaline (healthy). Believers in holistic health blame many ailments on the body’s pH being too low or too acidic. Increasing your body’s pH is called “alkalizing.” Lemon juice in its natural state is acidic with a pH of about 2, but once metabolized it actually becomes alkaline with a pH
Read more