Tag: Conservative dentistry
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Smile balancing through functional tooth reshaping
According to Gordon Christensen, dental equilibration (bite balancing) might be one of the most widely UNDER-utilized services in dentistry. – JADA April 2005 136(4): 497–499; Teeth that fit together correctly do not require the additional muscular activity needed to shift the jaw to the side or squeeze unilaterally when one side hits first. The art of…
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2014 Pankey Faculty Equilibration
What an honor it is to share my learning with others – the passionate few in my profession who want nothing but the best for their patients. There is a certain culture of excellence, humility, and drive embodied by both students and faculty at the Pankey Institute. I have been recognized and asked to teach…
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Facial “body building” related to tooth shifting
This patient was unconcerned with subtle changes in her bite until she noticed her smile in a photograph: a front tooth had drifted quite a bit, and her smile was no longer pleasing to her eye. Comparison of photographs over a ten-year period reveal a change not only at the tooth level, but also in…
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Myth about most “metal-free” dental crowns
As a restorative dentist, I place equal value on predictability, longevity, comfort, biocompatibility, and aesthetics. One soap box I don’t mind stepping on is the busting down the metal-free myth about the more popular new ceramic crown options. The two most popular types of all-ceramic crowns for back teeth are made from aluminum oxide and…
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What is JVA?
What is the JVA? The JVA or Joint Vibration Analysis machine is a small set of headphones which we place in front of the patient’s ears. But instead of the patient listening to music, this small sensor will pick up vibrations inside the patient’s jaw joint. Healthy jaw joints make very little friction as you…
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Hard raw-foods diet leads to fractured fillings; gold chewing surface sustains bite
Conservative dentistry and naturally sustaining lifestyles go together, and as such, many of the people attracted to our practice focus on their nutrition and overall health. This patient eats a strict raw-foods diet, including very hard foods like raw carrots and almonds. Though amalgam filling material has a compressive strength (aka, ability…
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Accidental fork bite threatens lower teeth
This lovely 90-year-old patient has kept most of her teeth her whole life. She flosses twice daily and uses fluoride every night! One day at a luncheon with friends, she accidentally bit a salad fork, and felt two of her lower front teeth become rather loose and painful to the touch. After…
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Early decay visible with enhanced Digital X-rays
Conventional film X-rays would require chemical processing and did not have the capability of changing contrast and gain. With digital X-rays, we can see the earliest of decays, and thus treat decay conservatively. This patient was seen in our hygiene department for routine cleaning and check-up. The ultra low-radiation exposures did not initially…
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Decay under amalgam filling is typical
General dentistry in the United States has been trending toward the discontinued use of silver-mercury alloy fillings, aka, amalgams. My own preference for tooth-colored resins is for several reasons, the most obvious being that as an aesthetic dentist, I like teeth to look like teeth. Additionally, resin is not affected by temperature…
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White dental fillings less sensitive when restored under rubber dam
One of the most challenging types of “simple dentistry” is to accomplish a direct resin restoration (aka, white filling) that looks good, functions well, and seals out bacteria from re-entering the side of the tooth. Only a few years , which had been somewhat sensitive since being placed. An X-ray of the…
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Oral airway appliance therapy resolves moderate sleep apnea
This patient had been diagnosed with Moderate OSA (Obstructive Sleep Apnea), meaning he would stop breathing in his sleep between 15-30 times an hour. His physician fitted the patient for a C-PAP but the patient did not tolerate it well, due to the leaking around the face mask. Oral exam shows two…
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Managing gum recession and tooth mobility with T-scan and equilibration
Periodontal disease affects approximately 80% of adults in the USA and can show up differently across the spectrum. This patient had very little active infection evident, yet a very high susceptibility to losing the tooth attachment to the jaw bone. Visually, the teeth are very clean and the gums are a healthy light pink…
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Healing the Pain-Body inside of teeth
In his book The Power of Now, spiritual leader Eckhart Tolle discusses the concept of the pain body . . . Tolle: The pain-body is my term for the accumulation of old emotional pain that almost all people carry in their energy field. I see it as a semi-autonomous psychic entity. It consists of negative emotions that were…