DRAKE DENTAL TALKS

Part 1 Edentulous Anatomy & What’s Important to Capture   by Drake's on-staff Dentist - Larry R. Holt, DDS, FICD Have you ever suffered that sinking feeling when you deliver an upper denture and instead of making a satisfying suction sound, it just follows your hand back out of the mouth?       Well, you're not alone. It happens to everyone. And I plan to write in our blog until I have shared  every. last. drop . of information that I know on how to make good dentures and avoid those headaches. It’s always best to start at the beginning.  Do a thorough intraoral exam of the patient and eliminate any possible pathology.  Once that’s out of the way, take a look at their existing dentures.  How are the borders?  Are they short?  Does the patient have decent suction with their current denture?  How much adhesive have they become addicted to?  First things first, if a patient is totally addicted to...

None of us can deny the digital days that we live in. This blog wasn't written on a scroll.  As far as the dental industry is concerned, what does this mean for us? As a lab, there are a couple things that we can say for sure: 1) DIGITAL DOESN'T MAKE MAGIC Yes, wands work wonders!  They eliminate impression material expense, mess, and fluids. However, the general skill required in capturing tissue detail is still needed.  In crown prep, you still have to pack cord.  If not enough of the opposing and adjacent teeth are captured in the scan, we'll still call you for another impression as the integrity of the final product will most likely be compromised.  Scanning software won’t work for you if you expect it to work  for  you . 2) DIGITAL IS EXPENSIVE On top of the initial buying price of up to $49,000, you've got data package subscriptions and software updates ranging from $500 to $4000 per year.  Those numbers can be qu...

We step into the vast blogging world as a  dental laboratory from Charlotte, NC   with a hope to expand our relationships, and with an open mindset to share our knowledge of the trade. Collectively we decided that we should create a central location to share all of the newest dental dish we hear, and the answers to questions that we seem to get on a regular basis. After-all, what’s better than a bunch of tooth nerds bonding over this kind of stuff? But seriously, who cares?   That's the all-powerful question as we dive in... Does the general public even get jazzed up to read anymore? Is knowledge really that powerful? Or should we go ahead and insert another teenage eye roll right now?   But then we come to the answer as we dig deeper. We care. We care about teeth.  We care about the patient.  We care about the materials and the products. We think our jobs are super cool - fascinating at times. And we like to get intricately detaile...