tips and tricks

When designing a cobalt chrome denture that rests on a tooth with compromised prognosis, you can add meshing to the metal lingual plating that will be covered by acryllic. This will allow the technician to add a denture tooth once the tooth is lost.

In the past I had inserted the lateral spreader passively and applied a force side to side. Today, Dr. Renner showed me to push the spreader down apically slowly and steadily with some force. This was much more effective in creating space for accessory points. The spreader should go down a few mm from the apex and the spreader should be length controlled. It should be removed with rotation of the spreader tip to avoid pulling out the prime point. Be gentle with the accessory point as it bends easily.

Dr. Gary smith handles greenstick like a professional, He recently showed me his method of handling greenstick for border moulding. He explains to the patient that he is going to place wax around the borders to capture the periphery. It will be a little warm but he doesn't want it to hurt the patient. He puts the head of the greenstick right at the centre of the blue flame (where the gas is unburnt) but doesn't really spin it around. He doesn't want the core of the greenstick to be melted or the end will sag. He only heads one side of the greenstick. After about 2 seconds, He takes it out and dabs the soft side onto the tray/denture in a tapping motion. This can cause voids and irregularities so he heats the greenstick on the tray over a flame and these will blend out. If he didn't do this then there would be characteristic streaks on the greenstick. It is dipped into hot water more to cool it down than anything (in my opinion) and to keep it soft.  then it is caref

Recently I had to access the root canals through a large amalgam that extended into the pulp chamber. This had been placed by a previous student that had wanted to ensure structural integrity of the tooth before endo was commenced. Despite it being a good amalgam restoration, it was compromised by my access as they had not left a covering over the pulp chamber (e.g Fuji) meaning that I had to dig around the amalgam trying to find the chamber without any reference points. Secondly, The amalgam meant that the electronic apex locator was having false positives of being over the apex as the contact with the file cause a closing of the circuit with low resistance (seen at the area just past the apex) When restoring teeth pre endo we prefer GIC or composite.