Every dentist knows that next to getting an injection, the procedure that patients hate the most is having impressions done. The goop, the gagging, the anxiety…Ugh!

Good News! We now have the technology to eliminate this procedure. So, if you’re still taking traditional impressions, you might want to consider investing in a chairside scanner. Chairside scanners do require an upfront cost, but besides creating happier patients, they can dramatically cut down on time required to take an impression.

They can also save you the cost of impression materials, while allowing you to better assess preparations and margins -- which of course means you’ll get a better result more consistently. Finally, a chairside scanner allows you to automatically upload your scans to your dental lab of choice --  and that means faster and more accurate results.

Airway Health

Intraoral Habits: Options for Early Treatment Intervention
 

Early treatment intervention is essential when the dentist observes the formation (or imminent adoption) of an intraoral habit. Habits can cause skeletal open bites, Class II malocclusions and major airway issues.

Arch length loss has already occurred when you see an erupting six-year molar caught under the distal edge of a primary second molar. Leaving it untreated will block the normal eruption of the second bicuspid, diminish the child’s arch length and possibly affect the space needed for the tongue to rest normally.

The ELASTIC HALTERMAN APPLIANCE      

The Elastic Halterman Appliance is an easy way to quickly regain lost arch length and return a tipped molar to its ideal position.

A mushroom-shaped button is bonded to the erupting molar’s occlusal surface. A band with a hook that extends distal to the molar is cemented to the primary second molar. Chain elastic is used between the hook and the button to provide the required force.

Airway Health

Early Treatment Options: Maintaining Space, Arch Length, and Airway
 

Early loss of a primary molar often causes the adult first molar to tip and move mesially. The basic unilateral space maintainer is ideal for holding the first molar’s position.  This simple appliance can maintain arch length; normal function and esthetics; and perhaps most importantly, intraoral volume, leading to improved airway health.

Airway Health

Early Pediatric Treatment: The Dentist's Role In Saving Airway
 

The responsibility for evaluating a pediatric patient’s oral health rests in the hands of the dentists and hygienists who will care for them for the rest of their adult lives. The dentist plays a key role at three procedural levels:  

Screening, Diagnosis, Treatment
 

As pediatric, orthodontic, or general dentists we should be looking to create a normal skeletal relationship for the best intraoral volume and airway space, a healthy jaw joint, excellent facial esthetics and a proper solid occlusion.

Every dentist needs to be actively involved in the evaluation of pediatric arch size, tooth position, airway and facial development. Early evaluation, diagnosis and treatment helps intercept problems, ensure normal development and gives your young patient a chance to grow into a healthy adult.

Airway Health

Everybody wins: Early Pediatric Treatment and the Importance of Airway

Early recognition and treatment of orthodontic and orthopedic issues is critical to the prevention of abnormal conditions and/or dental problems, which – if minimized or ignored – can persist (often disastrously, always expensively) into adulthood.

Consider the profound, continuing need for interceptive pediatric care – especially in light of all we are discovering regarding the nature and treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. The message is clear: EVERYBODY benefits from it – often in potentially BIG ways.

Now compare the cost of early interceptive care to that of extensive orthodontics, surgeries, crowns and veneers, sleep therapy, and potentially psychiatric or behavioral care in later years (after the damage has been done).

Early interceptive care wins hands down.

The purpose of interceptive early orthodontics is to correct problems early so you can allow the patient to achieve normal growth. Abnormal growth patterns can be triggered by something as simple as a tooth that erupts labially or lingually from its ideal position.

Airway Health

Give a Child a Chance: The Urgency of Airway

Pediatric space management is often the key to the prevention of potential disastrous abnormal conditions and/or dental problems which could persist into adulthood.

Once thought to be the sole responsibility of medical GP’s, the incidence of Obstructive Sleep Apnea is increasing significantly…and there is compelling evidence that many adult airway issues begin in childhood.

Many kids today that are diagnosed with ADHD (and prescribed medication accordingly) may suffer from an underdeveloped maxilla, a posterior placed mandible, and an airway problem which effects their oxygen saturation level.

Even something as simple as interceptive therapy to maintain space can positively affect the intraoral volume. Without such therapy, two things can happen: (1) loss in arch length and (2) the creation of an abnormal occlusion and abnormal jaw position.

Is it always the best option to recommend permanent restorations and bridges to older patients? Many dentists and cosmetic dentists would tend to answer “yes,” but today’s practitioner needs to carefully consider the best interests of the patient.

Not every older patient will do well with the lengthy and sometimes grueling appointments required to perform permanent restoration. This is especially true if the patient is already suffering from health-related issues and might not be highly compliant. In these cases, a dentist may want to consider the application of much simpler interim appliances, which can preserve both aesthetics and function.

Also worthy of consideration is the fact that many seniors are on a fixed income.  They may not be able to afford extensive dental interventions. Here, too, less expensive interim appliances can provide a more preferable, useful solution, at least in the short term.

If you’re providing sleep appliances to your patients, you should also be including a Good Morning Positioner as a support companion for each and every one.

A mandibular advancement sleep device acts to push the patient’s mandible forward and maintain an open airway during sleep. While this can lead to a good night’s sleep, (and a much quieter night for the patient’s partner), it may also affect the patient’s bite position.

The Good Morning Positioner helps patients to easily re-establish their correct bite pattern each morning.

Dentists, we know what you do is extremely important. Every day you protect your patients’ teeth, eliminate severe TMJ pain, and give them a beautiful white smile. You may also save their lives!

Dentists are on the front line of screening patients for oral cancer. Though oral cancer doesn’t get as much attention as other forms of cancer, it is still a very real and very deadly disease. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, in 2014 alone over 40,000 Americans were diagnosed with oral cancer and over 8,000 Americans succumbed to the disease.

Catching oral cancer early is paramount to a successful outcome.     

The Rick-A-Nator is truly the orthodontists’ best friend. This popularly used, simple fixed appliance consists of a maxillary anterior inclined plane placed on a lingual wire attached to molar bands. It can drastically improve deep overbites, improve a patient’s profile, and improve TMJ symptoms.

In some cases, you may see very young patients with deep overbites. Children aged four to six often present compliance issues.