Children and their sippy cups and toddlers with their bottles are a well-known recipe for disaster when it comes to tooth decay, but with the rise in popularity of adult sports like road biking, mountain biking, and long-distance running, the risk once only assigned to toddlers has increased for adults. The culprit? Sports drinks and energy bars. Thus, — fluoride varnish and dental sealants — once considered preventive treatments for kids, have become just as important for many adults, and the impetus for these extra measures of care lies with the dental hygienist.

Your patients are seeing it all over social media, television, and beauty blogs, so no wonder they're demanding whitening treatments that use some kind of light or laser! So, how do you educate them on the reality behind tooth whitening and the effectiveness products that use lights vs. those that do not? The objective of this article is to address just that

Reopening dental offices is a welcome sight to clinicians and patients alike, but concerns about COVID-19 are still top of mind among doctors. We know how important it is to get back to work and we want to help you do it safely by making sure you have everything you need while protecting you, your staff, and your patients.

So many aspects and variables affect the final outcome of a restoration, be it the technical difficulty of the restoration itself, the quality of the preparation, the chosen composite resin used, etc. However, the impact of the success and longevity of a restoration’s polymerization is too often ignored. Achieving a predictable, high-quality cure every time is absolutely essential. Here are some factors that influence the quality of any cure, along with a few tips on how to successfully maneuver them to your and the patient’s benefit:

COVID-19 has been met with a global “tele” response as industries grasp for ways to stay operational amid the shutdown. Workers telecommute, friends telesocialize, and doctors lean on telehealth to remotely connect with patients. Dentists find themselves uniquely limited in the teleworld, since patient care typically requires hands-on techniques. “if you need a filling, you still need to go see a dentist face to face,” says Dr. Christine May, an Australian-based clinician and founder of the teledentistry marketplace ViDe. “We haven’t worked out how to do that via remote consult robotics yet. I’m sure in ten years we might, but we’re not there yet,” she chuckles, later adding “I really feel that teledentistry is going to disrupt the way we’ve been doing dental care to date.”

There remains a growing belief among clinicians that obturation is to blame for endodontic failures. This notion has more recently fallen under scrutiny as researchers have discovered that the most thorough obturation can only reflect the quality of the cleaning and shaping of the canal. In fact, a number of researchers point to the thorough use of irrigants—making sure that the debris, and irrigant itself is lifted completely out of the canal, not forced out the apex—as the most important determinant in the long-term success of an endodontic procedure. The right irrigants, when used properly, eliminate harmful microorganisms and bacteria in the root and tubules, and prevent recontamination, even long after the RCT (root canal therapy) is complete. The recently acknowledged vital role of irrigants stands to reason, as RCT itself was born out of the necessity to treat the infected, and very often painful, dentinal tubules and roots that traditional restorative dentistry couldn't address.

Ideal for removing superficial white and brown decalcification stains due to enamel mottling from fluorosis, Opalustre 6.6% hydrochloric acid slurry contains silicon carbide microparticles. This combination provides chemical stain removal along with gentle mechanical abrasion. Opalustre, along with OpalCups, can be used to quickly remove unsightly enamel decalcification defects that are less than 0.2mm in depth.

Three words come to mind when describing world renowned dentist and lecturer Dr. John Graeber: progressive, passionate, and expert.

If you’ve ever logged onto Pinterest or any other social media platform, you’ve no doubt seen some of the many trends, tricks, and recipes for easy, cheap, "do-it-yourself teeth whitening” treatments.

Think of a diode laser as the Swiss Army knife of dentistry. There are many procedures that can be completed with a diode laser. Owning one brings an incredible amount of utility to a clinician. Most offices purchase a diode laser primarily for troughing but end up finding more and more reasons to use it. Essentially, any soft-tissue work that needs to be done can be completed with a diode laser because it makes the work so simple! You only need to grab the laser, attach a new tip, and get to work. The utility in owning a diode laser is the number one reason dental offices should own at least one! Buying a soft-tissue laser for your dental practice is a big investment, but if it’s made wisely it can reap huge payoffs.