DRAKE DENTAL TALKS

I hope everyone is recovering from the Holiday bustle! We're back at it here at Drake! I had a realization on Christmas Eve as I was sneaking around, playing Santa, and trying not to wake up my two little boys: I AM SUCH A FRAUD . What do I do once this jig is up? What am I going to tell them about the Tooth Fairy? And the Easter Bunny?  I'm eating the cookies, writing the Elf's good-bye letter, drinking the milk, sneaking the presents from my closet... Don't get me wrong, now. It's SO much fun, and so worth it...but seriously, WHO STARTED ALL THIS MESS that we have to clean up? Is there an article on how to gently let these folks go from their lives? Below is a link to a neat article I found when trying to find someone to blame for having to keep cash in my purse for the next few years!  (I recently had to sneak a dollar from the 4 year old's piggy bank when the 8 year old unexpectedly lost a tooth.)   I found a lot of fun facts from different regi...

Who Knew?

.... i t's good for our taste buds, at least. Here's a fun little read we came across from the ADA in the spirit of Thanksgiving! It tells us all about our favorite T-Day foods, and the good and bad that come with them.  http://www.mouthhealthy.org/en/thanksgiving-slideshow

“I sent a reline to the lab and the bite is now open half an inch in the anterior, what happened?” By  Larry R. Holt, DDS, FICD Things can easily be messed up during a reline process.  But, if you take a little extra time and follow a protocol, you can easily get nice results too. First, is the denture worth relining?  Really old dentures are typically worn and the acrylic is not amenable to accepting new acrylic.   Its ok to tell a patient that their denture is ready for the scrap heap! First (a second time) its very difficult to make major corrections on tooth position by performing a reline.  It happens accidentally on occasion, but when attempting to do something like intentional lengthening for more tooth reveal, its very difficult to be predictable.  This is a procedure to refit the intaglio surface, not to realign the teeth. Remember, all relines are closed bite impressions.   If you take the reline impression...

OBTU, SAY WHAT? Before working in the dental lab, I had never given much thought to a palatal obturator.  Before working with Dr. Amit Paryag, I had never seen a restorative dentist with such fire and keenness toward patient and product perfection - "patient centered care", as he refers to it.  When the two rolled in to one for us at Drake, something momentous was born.  DID YOU KNOW? In 1560 Lusitanus was probably the first to describe what is today known as palatal obturator used for permanent luetic fistula of the palate ( 2 ).  In 1564 Ambroise Parè called his small obturators “couvercles”, and in 1575 changed the name to “obturateur" which is derived from the Latin “obturo” meaning to stop up .  In 1634, Johson translated Parè’s “surgery”, published for king Henri the third. The text described an appliance to restore the palatal defect caused by venereal diseases and gunshot wounds.  In order to create his o...

Patients With Terminal Dentitions   ......................... How to Avoid Extracting Teeth Before Immediate Denture Fabrication So, you have a patient in the chair whose teeth move around like a piano player.  Its always a miracle some of the teeth don’t fall out when they sneeze.  Your plan is to take an alginate impression to send to the lab for fabrication of immediate denture.  Only problem is, there is no assurance that some of the teeth wont come out in the impression.  First and foremost, it is not your fault that the patient has waited to seek treatment.  Be sure you explain that you will make every effort not to perform unintended oral surgery.  That said, sometimes even with best efforts, these teeth will come out during the impression.  Please follow on to see how I have been dealing with these cases. You will need: A good stock tray. (I like the COE Spacer trays) PVS adhesive Alginate Adhesive Fast Set, Heav...