tips and tricks

Recently I had a haircut that made me reflect on the patient experience in our surgeries. The haircut was provided by a grumpy old chinese man who seemed to pride himself on getting the customer in and out as fast as possible. I think to him, fast meant good. The haircut was very rushed, minimal communication, he was throwing down the scissors and clipper inserts  and his movements were very fast and forceful. He would turn and tip my head forcefully, went out for a smoke between customers and the force felt from the clippers themselves was quite a bit. Contrast that to he younger, female hairdresser that was working in the adjacent chair, she moved slowly and purposefully, stopping to appraise the work and reassess the next steps. It may well be that she was less experienced which is why she took longer, but from a customer experience perspective most people would prefer her service. As we increase in experience, our movements becomes more unconscious and if we add a busy day on t...

 The special tray material I have encountered come in the light cured and chemical cure varieties. The light cured variety is rougher and are premade in thin sheets. Therefore they are simpler to use as an acrylic baseplate for wax rims/bite blocks and the wax can stick to the rougher surface and they can be made thin to leave space to set teeth. They also seem stronger in thinner sections compared to the chemical cure variety. One thing to note is hat although the chemical cure variety comes out a lot smoother and may be nicer for the patient, if it is heated, it tends to soften and melt slightly. This can be beneficial as adjusting it on a trimming wheel, the excess slumps together and can be peeled off compared to light cured tray material which will produce a lot more dust. However, the downside is that for denture impressions, heating the tray in a flame is ill advised as the tray will soften and become deformable. For crown and bridge, and other impressions where the extensio...

 So I've been quite preoccupied lately with job hunting. My public dental contract is ending soon and I am not looking to renew it. The upside of a public job is that the hours are fixed, work ends when the shift ends and the pay is acceptable but stable. However, with this kind of job comes a lot of red tape, to some extend, lack of clinical freedom. Because you work in a big organisation, you have to abide by the rules set from higher up. In the past, this job has been very kind to me, I was able to do what I wanted clinically within the scope of practice that was available. Now, understandably due to blown out waiting lists from COVID shutdowns, they are getting very restrictive about what kinds of procedures we can perform and the dentistry is being much more tightly controlled. I absolutely see the reason for this from a managerial and organisational perspective but I am feeling pressured to perform the kind of dentistry that I feel is not in the best interest of my patients. ...

 I recently finished the orthodontic foundation course with IAADent run by Dr. Kenneth Lee and Dr. Jonathan Low. The focus is on diagnosis of airway, sleep, TMD and facial balance and managing these patients primarily with orthopedic development and the orthodontic alignment at the appropriate time.  The course is run by very experienced clinicians and it does seem that there is some level of ongoing support after the course. There is an online forum where you can post case records and have an opinion from one of the faculty members (this is not straight away and you won't be babied. You need to provide comprehensive, good quality records and formulate a diagnosis and plan. They won't plan the case fully for you, but will comment on your progress). There is also study clubs they run in the larger cities throughout the year where cases can be presented for feedback (a fee is involved).  This is truly a foundation course though and although there are some hands on aspects, ...