The Dawson Academy Blog

How do you avoid mistakes during dental treatment planning? It's not a new question, but it is one that is asked often.

A simple way to answer this question in one word is: checklists! If you have attended any of The Dawson Academy courses in the last 4 years, then you have likely been introduced to the book The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Dr. Atul Gawande. Dr. Gawande practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston. He is also a professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School. In his book, Dr. Gawande writes about the measurable differences in success rates, cost savings, etc. that can be attained by using a simple checklist. He relays incredible accounts from different areas like central line infections in ICU’s to the complex engineering of skyscrapers that have thrived from using this technique.



In this complimentary whitepaper, Faculty Member, Dr. Angie Hedlund, outlines the following:

• Why you need checklists

• How to use checklists to improve treatment planning

• 3 key factors that help avoid mistakes during the treatment planning process

• The importance of taking appropriate records

To download this whitepaper, click here.

I wanted to share with you some traditional principles of crown preparation as well as some esthetic and functional techniques that I have found to be useful in my practice.

For all types of crown preparations the key principles still apply including retention form or parallel walls to prevent displacement of the crown along its path of insertion and resistance form to prevent dislodgment of a restoration by oblique forces. An appropriate marginal finish line is important to minimize microleakage and allow accessibility for optimal oral hygiene.  In addition, the marginal shoulder should have sufficient reduction to allow the cervical contour of the crown to follow the emergence profile of the tooth and preserve a healthy periodontium. 

I had the pleasure of being the teaching assistant to Glenn DuPont this fall as he led the dental treatment planning course in St. Petersburg. I really appreciated his candor in sharing with us some of his "research."  Like many of us, Glenn has done "research" on occasion on how not to treat a case. I had the blessing for 16 years of practicing alongside Ron Goldstein and David Garber. As you can imagine, there were incredible opportunities to do comprehensive esthetic dentistry. I learned early in my career and through much "research" of my own that esthetic dentistry cannot be successful without understanding proper function. As a matter of fact, it were these case complications that led me to my first course with The Dawson Academy. 

In my last blog post, I described the use of the T-scan in our office to cure “the Princess and the Pea” –an extremely occlusally aware patient that confounded us with her lack of satisfaction after reconstruction. We found the system equally valuable on the two subsequent patients that we analyzed that day.  

Patient number two has an incredibly strong buccinator and orbicularis oris muscles.  In addition he is heavy salivator, and we had real difficulty keeping the teeth dry. By evaluating his occlusion with T-scan sensor we were able to detect on the computer screen exactly where we needed to adjust even when the teeth were wet and would not mark well with the articulating paper. It was an invaluable help with this equilibration which I had dreaded on this challenging patient.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to try out the T-scan computerized occlusal analysis system. I was familiar with the system which was available in my former group practice, however, I had not used it to any great extent.  I had received such good training that I rarely had any occlusal complications following a reconstruction or an equilibration and had not found a great need to evaluate my patients’ occlusions with the system. In 2011, I restored a patient that we have affectionately come to know as "the Princess and the Pea."  This patient is incredibly loyal and gracious; she is also the most occlusally aware patient I have ever treated.

Salivary diagnostics may aid in saving lives from oral cancer and help better determine the most effective form of treatment for periodontal disease. It is beneficial for us to know the facts and key benefits of salivary diagnostics when speaking with ours patients. In this whitepaper you will find information about periodontal disease and oral HPV and how salivary diagnostics can assist in early detection and treatment modalities.

This whitepaper covers:

• Facts about periodontal disease & oral HPV
• The benefits of salivary diagnostic testing
• Facts about salivary diagnostic tests
• Scaling and root planning resistant pathogens
• HPV patient profile

To download this dental whitepaper, click here.

Did you like this whitepaper? Our Alumni Association provides monthly webinars on both clinical and management topics. Dr. Angie Gribble Hedlund was our guest speaking on Salivary Diagnostics in June 2012. To find out more about watching this webinar and more, click here.

By Angie Gribble Hedlund, DMD @AngieHedlund

I went to a great OSHA training seminar today.  That sounds like a funny thing to say about an OSHA seminar, but the presenter was more like a stand-up comedian than a lecturer and made the material really interesting and entertaining.  During the discussion of infectious pathogens, she devoted several minutes to Human Papillomavirus.  This is a considerable area of interest for me as we have been using the OraRiskHPV diagnostic test to detect oral HPV in our patients for over a year.