Intellectually and developmentally disabled patients (commonly referred to as: “Special Needs”) are a very broad and diverse group of individuals. When I started practicing dentistry 10-and-a-half-years-ago, in 2008, I was still developing my skill set and clinical parameters (determining what could be accomplished in our office.) Today, I am proud to tell you that our
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Click the picture to see it enlarged Before and After Photos are favorites for people discovering what is possible. This patient presented with a history of her friends making fun of her and telling her that “she looks British.” This jabbing hurt her feelings and she asked if there was anything we could do about
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Click to enlarge This is a before and after in-office whitening. This took 5 (15-minute) sessions all completed in one sitting. The teeth moved up the shade guide considerably. This was taken using ‘No Flash.’ Because it is hard for a camera to capture the real effect your eyes can see with an in-office whitening.
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The patient has had a lower anterior tooth that had gradually lost all the attachment around it as a result of localized periodontal disease. This left the tooth mobile and hopeless and it was starting to become uncomfortable chewing with it. Once we determined that the tooth was hopeless, we set out to make the
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I recently sat in a Hands-On course with Dr. Peter Harnois. We spent several hours discussing veneers. The primary topic was a discussion of prep design, tooth preparation in order to get the tooth ready to receive a veneer. Specifically, Dr. Harnois discussed Lumineers, which use strong lithium disilicate, and can be as thin as
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In this case, we have a classic example of a leaking sealant. The interface between filling and sealant at the occluso-lingual groove of #3 has broken apart and been seeping with each day getting into the dentin beneath the filling and the tooth. The interface between the sealant and the filling breaks and starts leaking.
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Patient presented with a small area of wear and chipping, and a microfracture on the incisal edge. In this case, a simple and conservative option is simply smoothing off the area with a very fine polishing disc. Because the reduction is less than 0.5mm, and the chipped tooth appears slightly longer, it makes a reductive approach
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Drink beer out of a can instead of a bottle. Click on the picture for the blown up view of today’s before and after for the chipped tooth. I heard an all-to-familiar story today. A patient was relaxing with his friends and was enjoying a beer. But, he made the fateful mistake of drinking it
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Dr. McFarlane: “So, we came to deliver the TAP-3 appliance, today… to follow-up. We delivered it last week. And now, we’re following up to see, ‘How does it feel?’” Patient: “It’s great.” Dr. McFarlane: “OK. Now, tell me a little bit about what you were telling me earlier about sleep. How was your quality of
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See the uncensored version here.
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