DRAKE DENTAL TALKS

After giving a lab tour to a couple of dental students the other day, I caught myself drifting off on the familiar topic of   MAN vs MACHINE... When you see all the shiny moving parts of the scanners, millers and printers, you can't help but to ask the same question as most - "how many people's jobs have these replaced?" And let me tell you how satisfying it is to say  NONE   every time!  If you read one of our previous blogs on digital, we touched on this topic a bit - that technology isn't magic and still needs brainpower to operate it. And that we take pride in not getting rid of old techniques and skills, but up-cycling them into other areas where they can be honed and refined. The same goes for technicians - hand waxers can become CAD/CAM designers with a stylus in hand. As I drifted further, I became curious about other professions and how they may have changed over time. Check out this article  I found and how there was a time when taxi dr...

  Waiting until the last possible second to get your credits in? Dreading committing your weekend / free time for 'work stuff'? We know the feeling. It's just... ONE OF THOSE THINGS... that you don't seem to want to do simply because someone told you that you HAVE to. But it's like waking up early to hit the gym - we all know its not so bad once you get over the initial hump, and just commit! So here ya go! If you need CE hours anytime soon - don't wait until the last second - we think this is a great one for you! Go ahead...COMMIT! The cool thing about this one is that there are a few different options for you to choose from - even knock a couple out at once.  Better yourself; better your business - we can all give a little free time for that!

Part 2 Options for Final Impressions by Drake's on-staff Dentist - Larry R. Holt, DDS, FICD WELCOME BACK! Hopefully by now you have a good understanding of critical edentulous anatomy.  This entry will focus on selecting the correct tray to use for capturing said anatomy.    We all remember dental school and the initial alginate impression with over extended borders; sending that to the lab and having a custom tray fabricated.  This is still a sound method to having an appropriate tray to use, probably the gold standard.  Be sure when you use this work flow that you take some time and draw in your desired borders for the custom tray that is to be fabricated on your overextended model.  I like to have these borders slightly short so there is room to do some border molding. A relatively recent innovation on the market is heat malleable stock trays that are specifically made for edentulous arches.  There are multiple manufacturers ...

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...