Dental Info

 Dentists, like most people, are creatures of habit. For many years we have been told by laboratories to provide 1mm shoulder or chamfers for our ceramic crowns. While this may make it easier for our labs to fabricate restorations, but now that they are predominantly fabricating milled zirconium and lithium disilicate restorations this amount of chamfer depth is more than the minimum needed. For those of my readers who are wondering what a chamfer or shoulder refers to, it is a shelf that provides the finishing line for this type of restoration.  Since this area is not the part of the restoration that has to deal with occlusal forces, probably all that is needed is about  a .5mm deep chamfer (or shoulder).  Since conserving tooth structure can ultimately influence the success or failure of a crown and the tooth supporting, preserving tooth structure is very desirable. The deeper our chamfers are, the closer we get to a tooth pulp when we are preparing a vital t...

We are a family dental practice specializing in Implant and Cosmetic Dentistry. Probably  my dental practice is somewhat out of step with the directions most businesses are going. There seems to be a general movement away from owner /operator businesses. No matter which way we turn there seems to be the trend toward consolidation of businesses This supposedly helps to “increase efficiency and cost effectiveness”. As far as I can see , this trend has not improved the general level of service and satisfaction that customers receive. Instead, this trend has resulted in fewer choices for consumers and often less competition between providers. When calling these businesses  we are often forced to spend a fair  amount of time listening to automated messages while we wait  to possibly speak to an actual representative. This trend has already impacted the delivery of medical care and will likely increasingly effect dentistry as well. In our “old fashioned” dental office we...