As a follow-up for my last curator journal I continue looking at the thought process behind two anterior implant abutments that snapped off. Based on some follow-up questions after the last post I realized that before discussing the different abutments and materials I have to think about "Why?" I chose what I did in this case. Sometimes we do the same things Read More

I'm still thinking about failure. I had a patient call and say "my dental implant fell out". It turns out she had fractured off two of the abutments. Thinking through what led to this technical failure is important. Saving model work for these cases and having an easy way to recover and create new provisionals is another important learning moment. Read More

We get to see "successes" in dentistry all the time, but the cases that don't go as predicted get talked about less often. The other piece of failure is the impact it has on us. Have you ever had one of those days where it feels like every person on your schedule has an issue? It was one of those days, but there are ways to counteract the emotional impact. Read More

In part two let's look at impression materials, retraction techniques and margin placement and design as means to sending the lab exquisite impressions. Read More

No this isn't a political post! Okay it depends if you consider the debate between triple tray versus full arch impressions political. Do they both work? Does one work better than the other? Does the clinical situation make a difference, or is one always better than the other? Read More

  In this third part of my series on a patient who presented "just to have a cleaning" and needed some significant anterior dentistry due to a hopeless central incisor we look at the final results. Read More

In my last curator journal I discussed a patient who came in thinking they "just needed a cleaning", and it turned out that a central incisor was terminal. In this installment I discuss temporizing in this case and creating a custom impression coping ot maximize anterior esthetics. Read More

How many times do you have patients on the schedule who "just need their teeth cleaned" and it turns out to be way more than that? How do you handle these situations, especially when reality is a difficult emotional dental situation? Read More