New site goes live on Monday, August 3rd!

As mentioned previously, I wanted to update the appearance of the blogsite, and add a little bit of functionality to it to make it more useful for our clients...

First, we went to a white background.  Teresa Duncan had advised me that the white type on black background was a little hard on the eyes, so...

Next, we added a toolbar that will allow for the viewing and downloading of our Fee Schedule and Rx Form, plus a Web Special button.  The idea behind the Web Special is to incentivize more clients to return to the blog more often.  We'll see...

We also added a Contacts button that provides easy access to our address, phone numbers as well as email addresses of key people at the lab, plus a special email address to be used to send case information and photos.

On the sidebar, we chose to display only the last three posts - the Archives and Categories widgets were made to operate as drop down menus giving the format a cleaner, simpler appearance without sacrificing function.

We eliminated the Google Words ads between the posts, instead choosing to display advertisements from select companies - businesses which we think will be of interest to our clientele, and have excellent reputations for customer support.  Please feel free to click on the ads to go directly to the websites of our sponsors.  Just don't forget to come back!

Below the ads, you'll see a widget that tracks the daily price of gold and other precious metals - just a simple reminder that alloy ain't cheap, and there are alternatives available.

Lastly, if you scroll all the way to the bottom of the blog, we've added a Google Maps widget displaying our location.  If you click on the pin, you can access driving directions from your location to ours - an excellent tool to help you and your patients who may need visit our facility.

I hope you like the changes.  As always, we are open to suggestions, so please feel free to leave your comments.

PS - We changed the name of the blog to saylorsdentallab.com.   The current site will remain up, but you will be redirected to the new site come Monday.

Off-Brand Zirconia - Worth the Risk?

Late yesterday, I received a call from a small lab in Georgia. The woman on the phone asked if we outsource our zirconia copings/frameworks, or did we mill them in-house? When I replied that we outsourced the millings, she asked what type of scanner we were using. I told her we did primarily Lava, but that we also used 3Shape forWhipMix's Vericore and NobelProcera.

She then offered a price on the Lava millings, which was competitive with what we are now paying our current Authorized Lava Milling Center. After I expressed my disinterest, she then offered an off-brand Zirconia - Crystal - for $15 less per unit than the price we are currently paying for Lava. Having never heard of Crystal before, I told her that I was more than a little suspicious of off-brand zirconias. She went on to assure me that my clients would never be able to tell the difference. She brought up an example of one lab that had switched and was saving themselves in excess of $5,000 per month!

The whole conversation made me a little queasy.

First, do you think for a second that the lab experiencing the savings has told its clients that its now using a potentially inferior zirconia?

Secondly, suppose the clients knew and were happy to use Crystal because of a slightly reduced lab fee? Assume that the lab passed the entire savings on to the dentist - is $15 per unit really worth risking your reputation?

We at SDL take great pride in our workmanship, and that includes tightly controlling the quality of the materials we use. That's why participate in the Identalloy program, and offer only branded restorative options like Lava, Empress Esthetic, eMax, etc... And, we invite our clients to visit our facility at any time to verify our protocols.

Peace of mind. Just another reason to work with us...

For more information

Contact Mike Malone

at mikem@saylorsdentallab.com

or 800.678.7354

Celera Denture Technique Update

On Monday, I shared with you that our own Mike Malone and Al Rodriguez had attended last Saturday's co-sponsored (3M ESPE / Imtec) continuing education event featuring mini-implants and the Celera Denture Duplicating Technique. Here's Mike's take on the Celera portion of the program -

"The Celera method uses a patient's existing denture as a reference, eliminating preliminary impressions, custom trays and wax rims. A wax pattern of the existing denture is easily produced creating a highly predictable 3D blueprint of the patient's new denture.

It cuts the treatment time in half!

When looking at ways to save time, and therefore money, we think this system will become a common practice for clients."

We believe in the system so we purchased both starter refill kits for your ordering convenience. If you would like to learn more please contact Mike at 703-361-4176 or mikem@saylorsdentallab.com

Cadent iTero Cases - Follow-up...

We just completed our first four Cadent cases.  My overall impression of the models is just as I expected.  I like working on the models better than the Lava COS models because they feel more like a conventional stone cast, and the dies are easier to remove from the model base.  However, I prefer the Lava COS protocol that delivers both a working model and a solid model for refinement of the proximal contacts.  

The Cadent model serves both as a working and solid cast - a situation that can cause extra work in the lab as it is difficult to seat mesial and distal contacts simultaneously - one or the other always seems to open up right at the end of the seating process making a small porcelain addition necessary.

One of my blog readers made a comment that it is possible to order the Cadent model with removable dies adjacent to the prep dies.  I need to look into this, but I wonder if that adjustment in the model fabrication method would result in overly tight contacts as the dies adjacent to the preps might be prone to micro-movements.  I will talk with our Cadent rep, and let you know what I find out.

In the meantime, here are some photos of two of the finished cases - 

1.  Occlusal view of a 3-unit bridge.

2.  Buccal view of 3-unit bridge.  One interesting item of note - The Cadent dies feature what I would describe as a "dual ditch".  The margins are delineated from the die stump by a flat area, approximately  0.5 mm in width, below the actual margin.  The actual ditch of the margin is located cervical to the flat area.  This was a little confusing at first as every die looks as if the margin type was a shoulder with bevel.  I personally would prefer a small ditch directly under the margin to minimize the opportunity for errors during waxing and finishing.

3. This is a view of the 3-unit bridge on Cadent's full arch articulator.  The red mark on the opposing cast indicates where we trimmed the model to provide adequate space for a PFM restoration.  The articulator was easy to work with, but I think Cadent should look into providing some type of pin to prevent overclosure during seating of the occlusion.  This particular case had no posterior stops, so we had to be very diligent to create an open occlusion on the molar abutment.  It is Cadent's contention that we could disk off the "strut" that is used to attach the models to the Cadent articulator, and remount the case in the lab on a conventional articulator; or they have jigs available that allow for the models to be mounted on a Denar instrument.  I'm sure we will gain experience with both of these methods in the future, but we were operating under time constraints, so we proceeded with the cases as provided.

4.  Just an occlusal view of an upper first molar crown.  The only reason I'm shown this is to note the remnants of the red articulating paper present on the adjacent teeth.  This is the appearance of the model after several minutes of attempting to steam clean the model - does not make for an attractive presentation, but I guess I'll have to live with it...

As the prescribing dentist resides in Alaska, I hope to get his feedback as to the fit and occlusion some time next week.  Will update you with his comments.

Imtec Mini Implant Seminar Update

This past Saturday, our own Mike Malone and Al Rodriguez attended an all-day seminar we co-sponsored with 3M ESPE / Imtec. Topics covered included the placement and restoration of mini-implants, as well the Celera Denture Duplicating Technique. In the interest of time, Mike has written the following, short review of the mini-implant portion of the course. His summary of the Celera portion of the course will be provided later this week -

"Interesting seminar this weekend on the Imtec MDI "mini implants". The speaker was Prosthodontist Paul Mullaseril DDS MS, who currently teaches at Eastern Washington University, and previously at the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry for 11 years. Dr. Mullaseril has trained over 2000 dentists - half of whom were trained specifically on this technique.

Because of limited space, I will spare you all the details of what we learned. However, we came away with a greater knowledge and appreciation of this technique and can absolutely see the benefits it will bring those who incorporate "mini implants" into their practice.

Some of the highlights of the system are:

*A growing market - $14 million in 2005 to an estimated $55 million in 2010.

*A rapidly growing target market - baby boomers

*Cost effective alternative for your patient

*New profit center for the doctor

*Minimally invasive, easy and relatively quick technique with 90%+ success rate.

I think the highlight of the day was Dr. Mullaseril's video of an MDI implant surgery from which the patient walked away with his new implant-retained denture in under 2 hours.

SDL sees the use of this technique much like we see other restorative decisions - There will be patients who do and do not fall within the parameters set forth by the doctor. While "mini implants" will never fully replace the traditional implant, we do believe their use will increase exponentially because of increased acceptance by industry leaders and an increasing potential patient base..."

If you would like more information, including an Imtec MDI technique video, please call Mike Malone at 703-508-1245.