Spring 2010 NEWSLETTER
Recent continuing education courses attended by Dr. Reid And Dr. Perrett: In January, Dr. Reid and Dr. Perrett both attended a three day symposium on functional occlusion given by the Peter Dawson Academy. Drs. John Cranham and Dewitt Wilkerson were the presenters. The Dawson Academy is considered one of the gold standards of training in comprehensive dentistry. Dr. Dawson has written one of the definitive textbooks of restorative dentistry.  The course included a thorough review of the anatomy of the temporomandibular joint and its muscular components. Different disorders of the temporomandibular joint have now been described and classified in the dental literature. This is important for us as practitioners in diagnosis of different problems of the joints of the mandible. This course also presented new treatment modalities of occlusal splint therapy. Our approach to splint therapy has always been to be as conservative as possible with treatment. This couse presented more organized and simplified methods of treating occlusal problems than ever. The standard of care in modern treatment planning requires a multidisciplinary approach to a patient's problems. The restoration of even one tooth requires a thorough knowledge of its effect on the other components of the occlusion and the musculature. Doctor Reid has been greatly influenced by the Daswon Academy philosophy of comprehensive treatment planning since his early years in practice. "This was a great refresher course for me, reinforcing the treatment planning philosophy and techniques I have always used," Dr. Reid. Doctor Perrett has also subscribed to a comprehensive multidisciplinary approach to treatment planning as taught in the general practice dentistry he attended at the University of Missouri at Kansa City for a year after he completed dental school at Creighton University. Dr. Reid also attended a course in March by renoun periodontist, Dr. Kirk Pasquinelli from San Francisco. Dr. Pasquinelli has published extensively in the dental literature regarding implant placement in relation to periodontics.  Dr. Perrett has attended several prosthodontic lectures throughout the spring and last fall through his Colorado Prosthodontics Society study club in Denver. Health Care Reform Bill and it's affect on dentistry Follow this link to the American Dental Association's official web site for their interpretation of how the new health care bill might affect dentistry in the future. www.ada.org  Reader Digest: Secrets Your Dentist Will Never Tell You *Some truly educated people think that if nothing in their mouth hurts, they’re fine. High cholesterol doesn’t hurt either but it’s a big problem. I honestly think that the general population doesn’t understand that their mouth is part of their body.   *If you’re breath is bad we won’t tell you, unless you ask.   *If your hands bled when you washed them, you’d run to the doctor. But in the public’s mind, bleeding gums are okay. Unless you’re really whaling away with your brush, if your gums bleed even a little, that’s periodontal disease, period.   *If you want to reduce the bad bacteria in your mouth, you should be all over xylitol{a sugar substitute found in chewing gum}. It changes the chemistry of your mouth. Six or seven pieces of xylitol gum everyday will keep cavities away.   *Amalgam fillings do release a small amount of mercury through wear and tear in the mouth. But you’d have to have about 300 fillings for mercury level to get high enough to pose even the smallest risk.   *A lot of patients are worried that dental x-rays can cause cancer but if you’re outside for an hour, you’re exposed to more radiation than you’d get from a full set of dental x-rays. What I worry about is that if I don’t take an x-ray I might miss something serious.   *When someone meets you for the first time, the first thing they notice is eyes. Second is teeth and third is hair. But people spend way more money on their hair than teeth.   Woolsten, C. (2009, July). 50 Secrets Your Dentist Will Never Tell You. Readers Digest, 130-137.		Cone-Beam Computed Tomography  One of the exciting new advances in the field of implant dentistry is the advent of cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) for implant treatment planning and placement. What is this? Cone-beam computed tomography is a form of three demensional x-ray, that shows the location and orientation of the bone and nerve structures of the jaw. This is critical for the planning of the placement of dental implants when considering the location of vital nerve,bone and soft tissue structures. This is a digital x-ray scan rather that a conventional type of x-ray. The scan is read by an attached computer that reconstructs the image. This is the truly new aspect of this technology. The scan can be rotated in any direction. We can actually see the skull from the inside out if we desire. We can look into the nasal sinus or into the interior of the mandible to locate structures. Implant dentistry is an exciting field that offers more treatment options than we have ever had before. The public has moved away from accepting removable dentures as adequate treatment for missing teeth. Restoring dentitions with fixed restorations like implants is now the standard of care. Dr. Reid has been restoring implants since 1983. Dr. Perrett attended a yearlong general practice residency that was heavily oriented towards implant dentistry. Dr. Reid and Dr. Perrett have been placing implants themselves at our office for many years now. This allows for more control of the restored case from start to finish. Drs. Reid and Perrett consider cone-beam computed tomography the standard of care for implant treatment planning. Conventional x-rays show only a two dimensional view where this type of scan truly shows everything in three dimensions.