Tom Giblin denture course Day 2

 Just finished Tom's day 2 of the denture course. We continued with the patient from yesterday with seting up the lower teeth and the upper posterior teeth. We tried the teeth in, took a check bite and then they went through the lab steps for waxing, flasking and injection the acrylic with the Ivocap system. I had some knowledge of the lab steps but it was good to see it done in person. Then in the afternoon he did the insert and because of the accuracy in the previous steps we didn't need any adjustment at that time.

The lectures continued on the previous theme with discussing aesthetics, occlusion but due to time constraints he skirted through partial dentures, immediate dentures and missed out on implant retained overdentures. 

I think that there was a general disinterest in the room from some of the other dentists about the laboratory side of the course and they were more interested in the clinical side. To me the two go hand in hand and it is vital that we as dentists understand how the dentures are constructed so that we can take better records, provide more clear instructions and understand how lab steps have gone wrong and critically appraise the work we receive back. The dentist-technician relationship is give and take and we can't delegate all the important work to them and expect them to provide quality work without having seen the patient. 

 I also felt there was more interest of the participants in the course of partial dentures and partial denture design and they weren't as interested in full dentures. This is fair enough as partial dentures are probably what they encounter more of in practice and there is more complexity and variation in terms of design and planning of a partial denture. This aspect of removable prosthodontics wasn't heavily covered in the course and Tom focused mainly on full dentures. To be honest, the course would probably have been more suited for three days rather than two but I could spend a long time watching the clinical and lab side of things as there is plenty more yet to learn.

Overall, I wouldn't say there was much that was mindblowing for me and it was confusing to hear his take on the subject which agreed with some previous practitioners I've quizzed but disagreed with others. Ultimately we have to form our own opinions on theories and techniques and use what works for us. I will definitely be trying to be more hands on with my dentures from start to finish so I can learn all aspects of the process and I hope this will improve my eye for aesthetics and control over my rehabilitations. I will have to review the course notes and do my own further research on partial dentures to learn more about that subject.